T24- 



IMIOCEEDINGS 






OF THE 



TAX-PAYERS' CONVENTION 



OF 



I ! 



SOUTH CAROLINA 



1:1, 1) Al (\U.I .MlUA, nF»ilNNIXO FKHlUAIiV 17, AM» HNDIXti 

Fkhkuaiiy 20, 1874. 



FU lil.ISlIKD n\ OMDKK OF IIIF ( ONVKNTIOX. 






Charleston, S. C. 
TliC Xews and Courier Job Presses. 

187 Jf. 



^ 





Class F"^!^ 



2^_ 



niOCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



/ 



TAX-PAYERS' CONVENTION 



OF 



SOUTH CAROLINA, 



Held at Columbia, beginning February 17, and ending 
February 20, 1874. 






rUBLLSHED BY ORDER OF THE CONVENTION. 




Charleston, S. C. 
TJie JVews and Couj'ier Job Presses. 

1874. 



OFFICERS OF THE CONVENTION, 
(Ix Attendance.) 



PRESIDENT. 

Hon. W. D. PORTER. 

VICE-PRESIDENTS. 

Gen. M. C. BUTLER. 
Hon. C. W. DUDLEY. 
Hon. GABRIEL CANNON. 

secretaries. 

Mr. GILES J. PATTERSON, of Cliester. 
Mr. W. ST. JULIEN JERVEY, of Charleston. 
Mr. GEORGE JOHNSTONE, of Newberry. 
Mr. D. S. HENDERSON, of Aiken. 

COMMITTEES. 

executive committee. 

Hon. James Cliestnut, Cliairman. Gen. John Bratton. 

Gen. Johnson Ilagood. Gen. Wm. Wallace. 

Hon. John L. Manning. Mr. C. S. Brice. 

Hon. A. P. Aldrich. Maj. J. J. Lucas. 

Hon. Thos. Y. Simons. Mr. B. H. Wilson. 

Col. John D. Wylie. Mr. R. M. Sims. 

Maj. John II. Screven. Hon. W. E. Ilolcombe. 

Col. J. A. Hoyt. Capt. F. W. Dawson. 

Col. Wm. Elliott. Col. A. D. Frederick. 

Hon. M. L. Bonham. Hon. J. B. Jeter. 

Gen. M. C. Butler. Hon. C. W. Dudley. 



COMMITTEE OX ME^NFOEIAL TO CONGRESS. 



Hon. A. Burt, Chairman, 
Col. B. H. Rutledge. 
Col. Richard Lathers. 
Hon. Geo. A. Trenholni. 



Col. E. 8. Keitt. 
Hon. W. D. Johnson. 
Col. Cadwallader Jones. 
Mr. B. P. Chatfield. 



COMMITTEE OX STATE AND MUNICIPAL TAXATION, 



Hon. Charles H. 
Mr. B. Z. Ilerndon. 
Col. J. A. Hoyt. 
Mr. J. G. Thompson. 
Gen. E. B. C. Cash. 
Maj. A. Yanderhorst. 
Mr. G. H. McMaster. 
Mr. W. A. Mooney. 
Col. J. D. Wylie. 
Mr. Gerhard Mtiller. 
Hon. C. W. Dudley. 
Rev. Douglass Harrison. 
Hon. W. E. Holcombe. 
Mr. W. M. Foster. 
Mr. B. H. Rice. 
Mr. A. B. Springs. 
Mr. S. Strother. 
Gen. W. H. Wallace. 
Mr. J. E. Tindall. 



Simonton, Chairman. 

Mr. J. A. Givens. 
Mr. H. H. Easterling. 
Maj. S. P. Hamilton. 
Mr. W. L. Reynolds. 
Mr. Lewis Jones. 
Mr. W. W. Walker. 
Gen. J. D. Kennedy. 
Mr. R. S. Griffin. 
Gen. Wm. Evans. 
Maj. J. K. G. Vance. 
Mr. W. T. Reeves. 
Mr. E. J. Scott. 
Col. J. B. Moore. 
Mr. S. W. Maurice. 
Mr. John Conant. 
Mr. J. M. Miller. 
Mr. B. F. Williamson. 
Mr. W. R. Johnson. 



COMMITTEE ON ADDRESS TO PEOPLE OF THE STATE. 



Gen. J. B. Kershaw, Chairman. 
Mr. C. Richardson Miles. Mr. Joseph Galluchat. 

Mr. A. B. Woodruft'. Capt. J. S. Richardson. 

Mr. Iredell Jones. Mr. F. A. Conner. 

Gen. John Bratton. 



COMMITTEE ON EXPENSES AND PRINTING. 

Mr. E. J. Scott, Chairman. 
Mr. J. H. Kiiisler. Mr. J. C. Shcppard. 

Mr. H. A. Gaillard. Col. C. Irvine Walker. 

Mr. W. G. Mayes. Mr. Louis D. DeSaussure. 

C0:^rMITTEE ON IM:N[I(tRATION. 

Gen. i\[. W. Gary, Chairman. 

Mr. B. F. Williamson. IMr. W. M. Lawton. 

Col. L. P. Miller. Maj. F. Melchers. 

Dr. James R. Aiken. Mr. W. A. Mooney. 

Mr. E. E. Sell. Mr. S. W. Maurice. 

Col. F. W. McMaster. Mr. E. M. Boykin. 

Mr. M. Baum. Mr. J. C. Davis. 

COMMITTEE TO REQUEST THE STATE TREASURER TO FURNISH 

VOUCHERS, ETC. 

{Under Besolatlon of Mr. J. G. Thornpso7i.) 

Mr. J. G. Thompson, Chairman. 
Hon. Gabriel Cannon. Mr. J. C. Sheppard. 

COMMITTEE TO PRESENT TO SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTA- 
TIVES OF SOUTH CAROLINA THE REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON 
TAXATION. 

{Under Resolution of Mr. Ilamilton.) 

Maj. S. P. Hamilton, Chairman. 
]\[r. B. P. Cliatlield. Mr. W. W. Walker. 

COMMITTEE TO INVESTIGATE AFFAIRS OF BANK OF THE STATE OF 

SOUTH CAROLINA. 

( Under Kesolution of 3Ir. Jliles.) 

Mr. C. Richardson Miles, Chairman. 
Hon. A. Burt. Gen. John Bratton. 

Col. Cad. Jones. Gen. Johnson Hagood. 



6 

COMMITTEE TO PRESENT MEMORIAL TO GENERAL ASSEMBLY OP 

SOUTH CAROLINA. 

[Under Hesolution of Mr. A. B, Woodruff.) 

Col. J. A. Hoyt, Chairman. 
Col. F. W. McMaster. Maj. John H. Screven. 

Mr. A. B. Woodruff. Mr. D. S. IlendersoiL 

COMMITTEE TO PRESENT MEMORIAL TO CONGRESS. 

Hon. W. D. Porter, Chairman. 

Hon. A. Burt. Maj. J. H. Screven. 

Col. B. H. Kutledge. Gen. M. C. Butler. 

Hon. M. L. Bonham. Gen. Jas. Chesnut. 

Mr. T. W. Woodward. Gen. W. H. Wallace. 

Hon. AV. E. Holcombe. Mr. B. P. Chatfield. 

Hon. C. H. Simonton. Hon. John L. Manninir. 

Hon. T. Y. Simons. Mr. J. G. Thompson. 

GeiL J. B. Kershaw. 



DELEGATES IN ATTENDANCE ON THE CONVENTION. 

Ahheville.— Wow. A. Burt, Col. B. Z. Herndon, Mr. W. J. 
Smith, Mr. F. A. Conner, Mr. J. L. Miller, Mr R. A. Griffin. 

Aiken.— Ciii^t. J. H. Giles, Col. A. P. Butler, Mr. D. S. Hender- 
son, Mr. E. J. C. Wood, Mr. J. A. Given, Mr. T. C. Morgan, Mr. 
J. M. Miller, Mr. B. P. Chatfield, Mr. Samuel Lark (colored), 
Mr. Nathan Sally. 

Anderson. — Col. James A. Hoyt. 

Bar7uvell. — Hon. A. P. Aldrich, Gen. Johnson Hagood, Mr^ 
II. H. Easterling, Mr. B. Weathersbee, Mr. J. C. Allen, Mr* 
Henry Ilartzog, Mr. Jones M. Williams. 

Beaicfort. — Maj. John H. Screven, Col. William Elliott, Mr, 
John Con ant, Mr. Wm. M. Lawton, Mr. J. G. Thompson, Mr. S. 
C. Millet, Mr. J. M. Williams, Mr Wm. S. Tillinghast. 

Charleston. — Hon. W. D. Porter, Hon. Geo. A. Trenholm, 
Col. Bichard Lathers, Hon. Thos. Y. Simons, Col. B. H. Rut- 



ledge, Col. C. Irvine Walker, lion. C. H. Simontoii, Mr. C. K. 
Miles, Mr. W. G. Ilinson, C.-ipt. F. W. Djiavsoii, Mv. W. St. 
Julien Jervey, ]Mr. C. W. Stiles, Mr. E. E. Sell, Dr. A. B. liose, 
Mr. Louis D. DeSaussnre, Mr. Kobt. Hunter, Major Franz 
Melchers. 

Chester.— Mr. A. II. Davega, Mr. J. S. Wilson, ISIaj. S. P. 
Hamilton, Mr. C. S. Brice, Mr. G. J. Patterson, Maj. Julius Mills, 
Mr. James IIemi)lnll, Col. J. J. McLure, Mr. O. Barber. 

Chester/lekl— Gen. E. B. C. Cash, Mv. Alex. McQueen, Mr. G. 
W. DuBall. 

Clareiidon. — Ex-Gov. J. L. Manning, Mr. Jos. Gallucliat, Mr. 
Wm. L. Reynolds, Mr. J. E. Tindall. 

Colleton. — Mr. Robert Fisliburne, Mr. Harry E. West, Mr. C. 
G. Henderson, Mr. J. J. Fox, Maj. Arnoldus Vanderhorst, Mr. J. 
M. Penceel. 

Darlington. — Major J. J. Lucas, Mr. B. F. Williamson, Mr. 
David Strother (colored), Mr. J. A. Law, Mr. A. R. Mclver. 

i:dgefield.—Ex-GoY. M. L. Bonliam, Gen. M. W. Gary, Mi-. 
Lewis Jones, Mr. A. D. Bates, Mr. J. C. Shei^pard, Gen. R. G. M. 
Donnovant, Mr. W. 11. Zimmerman, Mr. AVilliam Lott, Gen. M. 

C. Butler, Mr. J. Y. Culbreath, Mr. J. H. Bouknight, Mr. W. L. 
Durst. 

Fairfield.— Gew. John Bratton, Mr. T. W. Woodward, Mr. B. 
E. Elkin, Mr. II. A. Gaillard, Mr. G. II. McMaster, Dr. John 
Wallace, Mr. Thos. McKinstry, Dr. Jas. R. Aiken. 

Georgetoion.—YLow. B. H. Wilson, Mr. W. W. Walkei-, Col. 
L. P. Miller, Col. B. M. Allston, Mr. Robt. E. Eraser. 

Greenville. — Mr. W. A. Mooney. 

Kershaw. — Gen. J. B. Kershaw, Hon. James Chesnut, Gen. J. 

D. Kennedy, Mr. E. M. Boykin, Mr. M. Baum, Mr. T. II. Clarke, 
Mr. L. J. Patterson. 

Lancaster. — Col. John D. Wylie, Mr. John M. Beattie. 

Laurens.— hlx. C. M. Miller, Mr. R. S. Griffin, Mr. John C. 
Davis. 

L.exington.—ls\x. Girhard Midler, Mr. J. W. Hoffman, Mr. J. J. 
Knotts, Mr. A. D. Ilaltiwhanger. 

Marion. — Hon. W. D. Johnson, Mr. William Evans, Dr. Wm. 
R. Johnson, Mr. David Leggett, 



3larlboro\—llon. C. W. Dudley, Hon. T. C. Weatherly, Col. 

B. F. Pegues, Mr. Nicholas Rogers, Mr. W. J. Cook. 
Newberri/.—Mr. W. G. Mayes, Col. E. S. Keitt, Maj. J. K. G. 

Nance, Mr. Geo. Johnstone, Mr. John R. Spearman, Mr. L. J. 
Jones. 

Oconee. — (No Delegates reported.) 

Orcmgehurg. — Hon. T. J. Goodwyn, Dr. Geo. Odom, Mr. W. 
T. Reeves, Col. A. D. Frederick, Dr. O. N. Bowman, Dr. R. W. 
Bates, Mr. Paul S. Felder. 

Pickens. — Hon. W. E. Holcombe, Mr. D. F. Bradley. 

Fdchland.—Mw J. H. Kinsler, Mr. W. H. Stack, Mr. J. C. 
Seeges, Col. F. W. McMaster, Mr. L. F. Hopson, Mr. W. P. 
Speigncr, Gen. William Wallace, Mr. Edwin J. Scott. 

Sjmrtanhiirg. — Mr. W. M. Foster, Hon. A. D. Woodrutt", Hon. 
Gabriel Cannon, Mr. John H. Evans. 

Sumter — Capt. John S. Richardson, Col. John B. Moore, Mr. 

C. H. Moise, Mr. C. R. F. Baker, Mr. F. H. Kennedy, Mr. W. J. 
Pringle, Mr. E. H. Holman, Mr. John S. Bradley. 

Union.— M2.]oY B. H. Rice, Hon. T. B. Jeter, Hon. D. P. Dun- 
can, Gen. W. H. Wallace, Ex-Gov, W. H. Gist. 

Williamshurg. — Col. Jas. McCutchen, Mr. S. W. jMaurice, Mr. 
N. M. Graham, Mr. W. D. Knox, ]Mr. Thos. M. Gilland. 

York. — Col. Cadwallader Jones, Mr. A. Baxter Spriggs, Maj. 
R. M. Sims, Rev. D. Harrison, Mr. Iredell Jones, Capt. B. II. 
Massey, Mr. John R. London. 



:pK.ooEEiDiisra-s. 



The Taxpayers' Convention of the Stnte oi' South Carolina was 
liekl at Columbia, S. C, on the iVth, IStli, 19th, and 20th days 
of February, A. D. 18V4. 

In pursuance of a call made by the President and the Execu- 
tive Committee, the Delegates assembled at Irwin's Hall, at 12 
o'clock M,, on Tuesday, 17th February, 1874, and neither of the 
Secretaries being present, on motion of Col. T. Y. Simons, four 
new Secretaries were appointed by the President, as follows: 

Mr. Giles J. Patterson, of Chester. 
]Mr. W. St. Julien Jervey, of Charleston. 
Mr. George Johnstone, of Newberry. 
Mr. D. S. Henderson, of Aiken. 

The President requested the Delegates present to come foi - 
ward and enroll their names at the Secretary's desk, when the 
following Delegates appeared: 

Abbeville.— Ron. A. Burt, Col. B. Z. Herndon, Mr. W. J. 
Smith, Mr. F. A. Conner. 

Aike)i.—Cai^t. J. H. Giles, Col. A. P. Butler, Mr. D. S. Hender- 
son, Mr. E. J. C. Wood, Mr. J. A. Given, Mr. T. C. Morgan, Mr. 
J. M. Miller, Mr. B. P. Chatheld, ]\Ir. Samuel Lark (colored), 
Mr. Nathan Sally. 

Anderson. — Col. James A. Hoyt. 

Barmoell. — Hon. A. P. Aldrich, Gen. Johnson Hagood, Mr. 
H. H. Easterling, Mr. B. Weathersbee, Mr. J. C. Allen, Mr. 
Henry Hartzog, Mr. Jones M. Williams. 

Beaufort. — Maj. John H. Screven, Col. William Elliott, Mr. 
John Conant, Mr. Wm. M. Lawton, Mr. J. G. Thompson, Mr. S. 
C. Millet, Mr. J. M. Williams. 

Charleston. — Hon. W. D. Porter, Hon. Geo. A. Trenholm, 
Col. Richard Lathers, Hon. Thos. Y. Simons, Col. B. H. Hut- 



10 



ludge, Col. C. Irvine Walker, Hon. C. H. Simonton, Mr. C. R. 
Miles, Mr. W. G. Ilinson, Capt. F. W. Dawson, Mr. W. St. 
J alien Jervey, Mr. C. W. Stiles, Mr. E. E. Sell, Dr. A. B. Rose, 
Mr. Louis D. DeSaussure, Mr. Robt. Hunter. 

Chester.— Mv. A. H. Davega, Mr. J. S. Wilson, ]\Iaj. S. P. 
Hamilton, Mr. C. S. Brice, Mr. G. J. Patterson, Maj. Julius Mills, 
Mr. James Hemphill, Col. J. J. McLure, Mr. O. Barber. 

Chesterfiekl— Gen. E. B. C. Cash, Mr. Alex. McQueen, Mr. G. 
W. DuBall. 

Clarendon. — Ex-Go v. J. L. Manning, Mr. Jos. Gall achat, Mr. 
Wm. L. Reynolds, Mr. J. E. Tindall. 

Colleton.— My. Robert Fishburne, Mr. Harry E. West, Mr. C. 
G. Henderson, Mr. J. J. Fox. 

I)arlm(/ton.— Major J. J. Lucas, Mr. B. F. Williamson, Mr. 
David Strother (colored), Mr. J. A. Law, Mr. A. R. Mclver. 

J^\l</e/ield.—¥.x-Gov. M. L. Bonham, Gen. M. W. Gary, Mr. 
Lewis Jones, Mr. A. D. Bates, Mr. J. C. Sheppard, Gen. R. G. M. 
Donnovant, Mr. W. H. Zimmerman, Mr. William Lott, Gen. M. 

C. Butler, Mr. J. Y. Culbreath, Mr. J. H. Bouknight. 
Fairfield.— Gqw. John Bratton, Mr. T. W. Woodward, Mr. B. 

E. Elkin, Mr. H. A. Gaillard, Mr. G. H. McMaster, Dr. John 
Wallace, Mr. Thos. McKinstry. 

CeorgetoiDu.—llou. B. IL Wilson, Mr. W. W. Walker, Col. 
L. P. Miller. 

Greenville. — Mr. W. A. Mooney. 

Kershaic. — Gen. J. B. Kershaw, Hon. James Chesnut, Gen. J. 

D. Kennedy, Mr. E. M. Boykin, Mr. M. Baum, Mr. T. H. Clarke, 
Mr. L. J. Patterson. 

Lancaster. — Col. John D. Wylie, Mr. John M. I3eattie. 

Laurens.— My. C. M. Miller, Mr. R. S. Griffin. 

Lexington.— My. Girhard Miiller, Mr. J. W.Hoffman, Mr. J. J. 
Knotts, Mr. A. D. Haiti wh anger. 

3Iarion.— Row. W. D. Johnson, Mr. William Evans, Dr. Wm. 
R. Johnson, Mr. David Leggett. 

3Iarlhoro\—lloi\. C. W. Dudley, Hon. T. C. Weather! y. Col. 
1>. F. Pegues, Mr. Nicholas Rogers, Mr. W. J. Cook. 

Rewherry.—MY. W. G. Mayes, Col. E. S. Keitt, Maj. J. K. G. 
Nance, Mr. Geo. Johnstone, Mr. John R. Spearman, 

Oconee, — (No Delegates reported.) 



11 

Oran(jehur(/. — Hon. T. J. Goodwyn, Dr. Geo. Odom, Mr. W. 
T. Reeves, Col. A. 1). Frederick, Dr. O. N. Bowman, Dr. M. AV. 
]]ate. 

FlcTcens.—llow. W. E. Ilolcombe, Mr. D. F. Bradley. 

rdc/iland.—Uv. J. IF Kiiisler, IVIi-. W. IF Stack, jMi-. .F C. 
Seeges, Col. F. W. McMaster, Mr. F. F. Ilopson, Mr. AV. V. 
Speigner, Gen. William Wallace, Mr. Edwin J. Scott. 

SjKirtanhurg. — Mr. W. M. Foster, Hon. A. D. Woodi'uff. 

Sumter — Capt. John S. Richardson, Col. John B. Moore, ]\Ir. 
C. IF Moise, Mr. C. R. F. Baker, Mr. F. IF Kennedy, IVEr. W. J. 
Pringle, Mr. E. H. Flolman. 

Union.— '^l^]0Y B. H. Rice, Hon. T. B. Jeter, Hon. D. P. Dun- 
can, Gen. W. il. Wallace, Ex-Gov. W. H. Gist. 

WiUlamshurg. — Col. Jas. McCutchen, Mr. S. W. Maurice, iVIr. 
X. M. Graham, Mr. W. D. Knox, Mr. Thos. M. Gilland. 

York. — Col. Cadwallader Jones, Mr. A. Baxter Spriggs, Maj. 
R. M. Sims, Rev. D. Harrison, Mr. Iredell Jones, Capt. 15. IF 
Massey. 

At the request of the President, Rev. Wm. M. Martin opened 
the proceedings with Pi-ayer, after wliicli the President addressed 
the Convention as follows: 

THE PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 

Gentlemen Delegates : It is nearly three years since the Tax- 
jiayers' Convention first met. It met for the purpose of ascer- 
taining, as far as possible, the extent of the public debt; of ar- 
resting the wild and reckless expenditures of the public moneys; 
of fixing popular attention upon the abuses and usurpations un- 
der which we were laboring, and of reducing the rate and amount 
of taxation within limits that could possibly be borne by a peo- 
ple already im])Overished, and engaged in a constant struggle for 
subsistence. How far it succeeded in any of its objects need not 
now be discussed; but it may be safely affirmed that, if it had 
done nothing else than arrest and defeat the issue of the six mil- 
lions of bonds known as the " Sterling Foan," it would have 
deserved well of the country. 

The meeting and action of the Convention did certainly have 
the effect of arousing and concentrating popular attention. The 
State authorities of the day seemed to be impressed by the sin- 
cerity and gravity of the movement; acknowledged that there 



12 

were good grounds for popular discontent ; and made abundant 
promises of retrenchment and reform in tlie future administra- 
tion of affairs. 

Before adjournment the Convention gave it in cliarge to their 
Executive Committee, with the President, to protect tlie inter- 
ests represented by the body in the interval of adjournment, to 
keep in view the current legislation of the General Assembly, 
and to call the Convention together again at such time as they 
might deem expedient. It then adjourned subject to the call 
tluis provided for. 

Your Committee have not been in haste to reassemble you. 
They have waited till forbearance could find no further excuse. 
Not only have the promises given and the pledges made, been 
utterly and shamefully broken, but the career of corruption, of 
prodigal expenditure, and excessive taxation has gone forward 
with accelerated momentum, till it has driven us to the utmost 
limit of toleration. The pro])erty-holding and taxpaying people 
are not only in distress, but in despair. They see in the future 
nothino- but ruin or revolution. Their Government has become 
a sword instead of a shield, and threatens the very vitals of the 
body politic. This is not Republicanism; according to all re- 
ceived ideas of civil freedom and civil government, it is despot- 
ism, plain, naked, ruinous despotism. 

Your Committee, after careful and anxious deliberation, came 
to the unanimous conclusion that it was due to the sufferings of 
the people represented by the Convention, to the patient and 
law-abiding spirit in which they have so long succumbed to the 
grinding exactions imposed upon them, and to the fearful catas- 
trophe of confiscation and ruin that is so nearly impending over 
them, that this body should be reassembled; and that its basis 
should be enlarged so as to take in new elements and larger 
numbers fresh from the several constituencies. And this to the 
end, that there might be conference and counsel as to the reme- 
dies within the law, to which resort may be had for their relief; 
that a grave exposition may be made of their grievances, and a 
protest and memorial, made in solemn form, to the authorities 
and people of the United States for sympathy and succor in this 
behalf; and that by an earnest and concerted effort to help them- 
selves by such means and agencies as prudent counsel shall sug- 
gest, they may entitle themselves to the sympathy, support, and 
co-operative aid of all good men in the country, who hate tyran- 
nous misrule, and Avho have the heart, the conscience, and the 
courage to extend, in the hour of great and common peril, a sign 
of good will, a hearty hope of deliverance, and, if it be possible, 
an active helping hand to a portion of their own fellow-citizens, 
who, in the violated name of equal rights, and under the prosti- 



13 

tilted forms of law, fire being dejirivcd of tlie privileges dearest 
to freemen, and reduced to a condition of thraldom as hopeless as 
it is revolting. 

That it may not be supposed that this is mere word-painting, 
an overdrawn picture, an idle tale that is told to excite pity or 
stimulate resentment, let us refer to facts, and exhibit to the 
country our real internal or domestic condition. 

South Carolina is now a State of the United States, and by the 
fundamental law of the land the United States is bound to guar- 
antee to her a Republican form of government. If there be a 
test of Republican or Free Representative Government, better 
known, more universally recognized, and more dearly prized 
perhaps than any other, it is that taxation and representation go 
together. The meaning of this is, that the people shall not be 
taxed without their consent. Government is instituted to pro- 
tect property as well as person. And so jealous are all free 
peoples of the exercise of the powers of taxation by their rulers, 
that this question or matter has been the turning point of more 
rebellions and revolutions than any other one cause that can be 
named. Our own national independence was the result of an 
unjust and unrighteous claim of the right to tax. Numbers and 
property arc the two great elements of society; and the art of 
good government consists in giving to each its just weight and 
influence in the political arrangement. It is not meant that each 
person should have weight or representation according to his 
wealth, but that the great property interest should be recognized 
and protected against destruction or invasion, as well as that 
other interest which consists of persons or numbers. It is simply 
a solecism to call that a Republican Government in which prop- 
erty is not only unprotected by proper guards and securities, 
but in which it is delivered over to non-property holders to be 
dealt with under the forms of law, as their caprices, interests, 
prejudices, passions, or necessities may dictate. There is, per- 
haps, no better or more intelligible definition of one sort of 
tyranny than is contained in the words taxation iGithout repre- 
sentation. 

To comprehend the full force of our grievance, it is neces- 
sary to bear in mind that by virtue of the reconstruction 
policy of the United States, the civil and political condition of 
South Carolina is anomalous; it is, perhaps, without a parallel in 
the history of civilized communities, certainly of those which 
claim to be Republican communities. It is not proposed to con- 
sider this matter in the light of race, or color, or party, but sim- 
ply and exclusively in the light of property-holding and non- 
property-holding. What has been done in the matter of citizen- 
ship and suffrage has been done, and we are not asking that it 



14 

he reversed. What we do ask is, that in considering our condi- 
tion, and the mode of relief for it, the facts ahont to be stated 
will be kept in mind. 

The first of these facts is — 

That the voting population of the State, that which wields the 
political power, is divided by a broad, distinct line, into two 
great classes — tlie one property-holding and taxpaying, the other 
non-property-liokling and non-taxpaying. 

The second is — 

That the great preponderance of political power is in the hands 
of the non-taxpayers, constituting a large, hxed majority, who 
are banded together, and persistently refuse to the taxpayers a 
fair representation for the ])rotection of their property interests. 

The third is— 

That the people who pay the taxes have substantially no voice 
in laying or expending them, and that those who lay and expend 
the taxes neither contribute to them nor feel the Aveight of 
them. 

The sum and substance of all this is that the great proprietary 
interest, representing some 1170,000,000 of value, is taxed ad 
libitum, without its consent or due representation, by those who 
do not feel any part of the burden, but enjoy all the fruits of the 
spoliation. 

Is not this condition of things without its like or parallel, 
whether in theory or practice, wherever Representative Govern- 
ment exists ? Could a similar condition of things be maintained 
for any length of time in any free State of this Union, except by 
military force ? Let any candid man who knows the first princi- 
ples of free government give a conscientious answer to these 
questions. 

The logical result is just what might be expected. Those who 
are to levy, expend and enjoy the taxes cannot lay them too, 
heavily on those who have nothing to do but to pay. Our capa- 
city to endure is the only limitation they recognize. Their own 
cupidity is the only measure of their spoliations. The property- 
holders, Avho pay the taxes, are becoming daily impoverished by 
this process of confiscation and legalized plunder, while the favor- 
ed leaders of the non-property holders, who levy the taxes, com- 
paratively few in numbers and grown suddenly rich, flourish in 
purple and fine linen, ride in stylish equipages, and are dwelling 
luxuriously in sumptuous palaces. The former have not even 
the poor privilege of resisting an illegal tax, for the Legislature 
has closed the doors of the Courts till the tax be paid, when re- 
sistance Avould be useless; while the former hedge their officials 
round with Validating Acts and Legislative confirmations and 
ratifications, to shield them from responsibility to the law for 
illegal oflicial acts. 



15 

The statement of a few facts and lif>'ures will demonstrate how 
utterly regardless of all property interests are laAV-givers Avho 
neither feel nor acknowledge any responsibility to taxpaying 
constituencies; nay, who have been taught to believe that it is a 
virtue to despoil them. 

The taxable values of the State have been reduced by war and 
emancipation from near $500,000,000 to about $1 75,000,000; 
while the annual tax levy has been raised from an average of 
$400,000 to over $2,500,000. 

It has been calculated that, taking into consideration tlie loss 
and depreciation of property, the exaggerated assessments, the 
increased rate of taxation, and the reduced ability of property- 
holders to meet the demands, the people of the State are now re- 
quired to 2)ay at least twenty times the amount of tax they })aid 
before the war. 

In six years, our bonded debt has been trebled, while there is a 
fearful apprehension of a floating debt, and unacknowledged 
bonds to an undefined extent. 

The annual legislative expenses before the war were about 
$40,000; now they are near $300,000. 

The annual stationery bill of the Legislature before the war 
was about $400; now it is some $16,000. 

The public printing before the war did not exceed $5,000 ; 
now it reaches the appalling ligure of $330,000. 

But Avhy rehearse the sickening details of these enormities, and 
that other long catalogue of railroad frauds, land commission 
frauds. State debt frauds, census frauds, furniture frauds, election 
frauds, and others too numerous to specify, all evincing an in- 
genuity and audacity which excite amazement as well as provoke 
disgust. They are not denied; they are acknowledged or proved, 
and made matter of boastful defiance. The State and the coun- 
try ring with the recital of them from side to side. The indig- 
nant press has blazoned them! All honest men denounce them! 
They are the opprobrium of good government, and a blot on the 
national escutcheon; a reproach and disgrace to the civilization 
of the age! They are doubly infamous, because they are visited 
not only upon a helpless people, but upon women and children, 
from whose mouth the tax-gatherer is snatching the very bread 
of existence, and from whose defenceless heads he is tearing away 
the roof that shelters them. The most accomplished official this 
State has known since reconstruction, a man of great talents and 
the highest culture, a member of this Convention, who proclaims 
himself to be " intensely Republican," has spoken and Avritten of 
these things in language as strong as any of us would wish to 
employ, and iio less true than strong. In a letter to Colonel 
W. L. Trenholm, Avritten in 1871, the Hon. D. II. Chamberlain 
says: 



16 

" Three years have passed and the result is — what ? Incoin})e- 
tency, dislionesty, corruption in all its forms, have 'advanced 
their miscreated fronts' — have put to flight the small remnant 
that oppose them, and now rule the party which rules the State. 

" You may imagine the chagrin with which I make this state- 
ment. Truth alone compels it. My eyes see it — all my senses 
testify to the startling and sad fact. I can never be indifferent 
to anything which touches the fair iame of the great national 
party to which all my deeper convictions attach me, and I repel 
the libel which the party bearing that name in this State is daily 
pouring upon us. I am a Republican by habit, by conviction, by 
association; but my Kepublicanism is not, I trust, composed of 
equal parts of ignorance and rapacity. Such is the plain state- 
ment of tlie present condition of the dominant party of our 
State." 

Three years more have passed, and deeper colors and darker 
sliadows have been thrown upon the picture. We are three years 
nearer the end, and that end is bankruptcy and ruin! 

Can these things be and nothing be done to avert the catastro- 
phe ? Can nothing be done to beat down these " miscreated 
fronts;" to put to flight that " incompetency, dishonesty and cor- 
ruption;" to restore a simply honest administration of public 
affairs ? AVhat we want, of all things, is an honest, economical 
goverimient. It matters little, in our present condition, whether 
it be Republican or Democratic, Radical or Conservative. It is 
not with us a question of iaction, or party, or race; it is simply a 
question of self-preservation. 

Gentlemen, the people of the State look to you for counsel in 
their great trouble. 

To refuse the payment of these excessive taxes and take the 
consequences, is the suggestion that naturally springs up to the 
ajTCrrieved mind. Let us understand our ground. This is an ex- 
treme remedy; it looks in the direction of resolving society into 
its ori2:inal elements. It is the last resource of an overburdened 
people. To give it any effect other than ruin to a few, there 
must be general accord and co-operation, especially among large 
taxpayers. Taxes are the dues of government, its only resource 
for self-support; the wrong and tyranny is in the excess of them. 
And the line is most diflicult to draw. But there is a limit to all 
human forbearance; and it is a law of compensation, that excess 
must and will lead to reaction. Whether any, and what line of 
conduct be practicable and expedient in this direction, now or in 
any future contingency, is a matter which will doubtless dwell 
in your minds, and receive your most careful and anxious delib- 
eration. 

In the meantime, there are other expedients to which we may 
resort, more immediately, and, perhaps, with greater unanimity: 



17 

1. J^ncouragc Iimnigration. Tliis is nl ways good ])()licy in a 
State; and it is doubly so witli us. As the landliolders of the 
State, you have great power in tliis respect. The immigrant 
brings labor, enterprise, money, and, above all, love of economy 
and honesty. Whether he buy his own farm, or work on your 
farm, he will see and know the value of honest government. 
Effective organization is necessary here as in similar undertak- 
ings. A branch of the great sti-eam of immigration has begun 
to set in upon South Carolina. With proper encouragement it 
will grow broader and deeper, and bear in upon its bosom hopes 
and means of relief at no distant day. 

2. Organize Affiliated Ta?' payers' Clubs iii every County, vWi 
a Central Head in this City. These bodies can overlook the 
doings of State and county officials; sound the alarm at every 
discovery of public misconduct; trace out the fraud and the of- 
fender, and do all in their power to bring the betrayers of the 
public trust to the bar of offended justice. What is now nobody's 
business, will tlien become somebody's business. Your numbers 
will give you strength, and in concert of action you will liind 
confidence. To make these organizations effective, the people 
must subject themselves to a reasonable assessment, proportioned 
to their ability. 

3. JSIeniorialize the people of the United States in Congress as- 
senibled. Carry up your grievances to the highest legislative 
authority in the land. If South Carolina were an independent 
State she might, and probably would, right her own wrongs and 
i-edress her own grievances. But she is an integral part of the 
ITnion, a State of the United States ; and as long as she yields 
obedience to its laws, is entitled to whatever redress of acknowl- 
edged wrongs, and whatever protection against flagrant misrule 
the Federal Government can give. This great Government has 
moral as well as political power. If it would but speak a reso- 
lute word, and act in accord therewith, in its appointments, in its 
disbursements of revenue, and in the various ways in which it 
comes in contact with the State Governments, this of itself would 
do much to bring the perpetrators of these great Avrongs to a 
sense of propriety; for the Federal Government is the only power 
they seem to fear. They would not dare to provoke its antagon- 
ism, but would quietly bow to its behests. What political power 
the Federal Government can exercise in relation to a political 
system, organized, subject to its own approval, in the abnormal 
and exceptional way that the Government of South Carolina was 
organized under the Reconstruction Acts, is a matter to which 
you may invite its gravest and most earnest consideration. That 
a condition of things may arise, if it has not already arisen, in 
which it will be the duty of the United States, through their 

3 



constituted authorities, and in pursuance of their fundamental 
hiw, to guarantee to South Carolina a Republican form of Gov- 
ernment, woukl seem to be demonstrated by the explicit provi- 
sion to that effect in the Constitution of the United States. A 
definition or intimation of the causes or conditions that would 
challenge and warrant such interposition, might of itself work 
out the required relief. At all events, it is in accordance with 
tlie historical usages and precedents of the country, from Colo- 
nial times to the present clay, that in such exigencies a plain and 
truthful statement of grievances be presented in the most 
solemn form to those who have the power to redress; tlmt their 
sympathy and their aid be invoked; and that no means or agen- 
cies within the law be left untried to arrest and turn aside courses 
of oppression and misrule that cannot result otherwise than in 
some great and disastrous catastrophe. 

Bancroft, the liistorian of the "United States, heads the Htli 
Chapter of his 5th volume, with these stirring words, which fall 
upon the ear like a voice out of the shadowy past: 

"south CAROLIXA. POUXDS the AMERICAN UXIOX." 

This was in June-July, 1765, just ten years before the Declara- 
tion of Independence, and the historian has reference to the re- 
sponse of South Carolina to the Massachusetts circular for the 
hrst Congress on the American Continent. 

One Legislature and another held back, and " the great meas- 
ure was in peril," and "its failure would make of American re- 
sistance a mockery;" when, "far away, towards the lands of the 
sun," South Carolina, the most highly favored by the Crown of 
all the colonies, under the lead of the fearless Gadsden, the elo- 
quent liutledge, and the patriotic, liery Lynch, forgetting her 
separate and sellish interests, listening only to the inspiration of 
freedom, and casting behind her all fear of consequences, gave her 
vote in Assembly for the first Congress, and the first Union of 
the American people. And had it not been for South Carolina 
no Congress would then have been held; and the historian further 
records that the very first Delegates who arrived on the spot for 
meeting, at New York, were Gadsden, Rutledge, and Lynch, the 
Delegates from the far distant Colony of South Carolina. And 
from that day onward that noble little Colony marched forward 
with brave lieart and unflagging step, side by side in line with 
her sister Colonies, through the valley of the shadow of death, 
till they reached together the final and glorious consummation of 
deliverance and liberty — suffering as no other Colony suffered, 
bleeding at every pore, the martyr, if not the champion, of the 
cause of Lidependence! 



19 

There is one tiling the American people may be disposed to 
remember against South Carolina, but there arc many, many 
things they cannot afford to forget. J>y the memories of that 
glorious past; by the record of common sufferings and achieve- 
ments in those early days, the most memorable our liistory 
records ; and in the name and for the sake of that liberty for 
which the blood and treasure of their fathers and our fathers 
were poured out without stint, let us call upon the American 
])eople to do their best endeavor to rescue the homes and tlie 
descendants of the Rutledges, the Gadsdens, and the Lynches, as 
Avell as the intelligence, culture, refinement, aud property of this 
gallant member of the old Thirteeu from being trodden under 
foot by a rule of unmitigated numbers, in which ignorance and 
rapacity are running riot. And if they have nature in them, they 
will hear and heed the call! 

The President then announced that the Convention was ready 
to proceed to business, and Col. C. II. Simonton, of Charleston, 
offered the following: 

PLATFORM OF THE CONVENTION. 

This Convention not having been called in the interest of any 
political party, all political discussion or allusion to the questions 
now agitating the two great parties existing in the nation Avould 
be foreign to the purposes for which it is assembled. 

llesolved, No Resolution or motion of this character, or involv- 
ing such discussion, will be received by the Convention. 

Ilesolved, That the Convention address itself to the considera- 
tion of the following subjects: 

First. To the preparation and adoption of a memorial and 
address, whereby the people of the L^nited States can be informed 
of the w^rongs which we suffer by reason of the frauds and ex- 
travagance of our State Government, and by the total disregard 
of the interests of the taxpayers, who are not represented, and 
who are thus deprived of the advantages of a Republican form 
of Government. 

Second. To the prejjaration and adoption of some mode 
whereby just punishment can be visited upon the perpetrators 
and authors of these frauds, and whereby the commission thereof 
can be prevented in future. 

Third. To the preparation of an Address to the people of 
this State, giving them the counsel of tliis Convention as to tlic 
course of conduct they should adopt so as to ameliorate, counter- 
act and prevent the continuance of the heavy burdens which they 
now endure. 



■ 20 

To these ends, be it 

Resolved, Tlmt all existing Committees be discharged, and 
that the following Committees be appointed: 

1. An Executive Committee, to consist of twenty-one mem- 
bers, to whom shall be referred, without debate, all resolutions 
and propositions not specially referred to any other Committee. 

2. A Committee, to consist of seven members, to whom shall 
be referred the pre})aration of an Address and Memorial to tlie 
National Congress, and through them to the people of the United 
States. 

3. A Committee, to consist of thirty-five members, on the 
causes of the increase of State and Municipal taxation, and tljc 
mode and measure of relief therefor. 

4. A Committee, to consist of seven members, to prepare an 
Address to the people of this State. 

5. A Committee on Printing, and on the Expenses oi tlie Con- 
vention, to consist of seven members. 

The Resolutions were seconded by Col. Richard Lathers, in an 
elaborate and forcible speech, and w^ere unanimously adopted. 

Col. Lathers introduced a Memorial to Congress, which was 
referred, without being read, to the Committee on Memorial to 
Congress. 

Gen. M. W. Gary, of Edgefield, proposed the following addi- 
tional Resolution, which, being amended by Mr. E. E. Soil, of 
Charleston, was adopted, as follows: 

Resolved, That a Committee of nine be raised to take into con- 
sideration the encouragement of Immigration into this State, and 
confer w^ith the State Grange about to assemble in this city. 

Gen. M. C. Butler, of Edgefield, introduced the following, wliich 
was referred to the Executive Committee: 

Resolved, That a Committae of fifteen be appointed by the 
Chair, to proceed to Washington, and present to the President 
the Address prepared on behalf of tlie people of this State to the 
people of the United States, and request him to lay the same be- 
fore Congress. 

Col. E. S. Keitt proposed the following: 

Resolved, That the President of this body be authorized to 
appoint a Committee of five, to draw up a petition to Congress, 



21 

sotting forth tlic facts, and contlition of tlie State, caused by the 
corruptions and frauds of the officials of tlie State Government, 
and praying that body to ap])oint a Si)ecial Committee, with full 
power to investigate the iinancial condition of the State, and to 
take such action as will relieve the people of the State from the 
crushing oj)pressions that now weigh them down, and put her 
upon the highway to prosperity. 

Resolved^ That we earnestly invoke the aid of President Grant 
in this great work, and pledge him a full and cordial sup])ort. 

liesolved^ That each County of the State elect two Delegates, 
whose duty it shall be to proceed, at as early a day as possible, 
to Washington City, and lay the petition before the President, 
with the prayer that he lay it before both Houses of Congress, 
and ask their early consideration of the matter. 

Thes.e Resolutions were supported by the author in an elo- 
quent appeal, and also by Hon. C. W. Dudley, and was referred 
to the Executive Committee. 

lion. A. P. Aldrich moved that when this Convention adjourn, 
it adjourn to meet at 10 o'clock A. M. to-morrow, which was 
carried, after some discussion. 

A reconsideration was moved, when Hon. T. Y. Simons moved 
to adjourn. This motion being seconded, and put to the house, 
the Chair decided that the ayes were in the majority. A divis- 
ion was called, Messrs. Simons and Hamilton acting as tellers, 
which resulted as follows: 

Ayes, 33. Noes, 36. 

The motion to adjourn was therefore declared lost. 

The motion to reconsider then came up, and was carried, and, 
on motion, it was resolved that this Convention now adjourn to 
5.30 this P. M. 



EVENING SESSION. 



Tuesday, February 17, 1874. 

At 5.30 P. M. the Convention was called to order by the Presi- 
dent, who announced that it was impossible to name the Stand- 
ing Committees until to-morrow morning. 

Col. S. W. Maurice, of Williamsburg, introduced the following, 
which was referred to the Committee on Immioration: 



22 

Whereas, It is manifest to every intelligent man in the State, 
who is honest enough to acknowledge the truth, that the State 
Government is controlled and managed, in every department of 
it, by a set of the most corrupt, incompetent, and venal office- 
liolders the world ever saw; and who, for their own aggrandize- 
ment, are running the State into bankruptcy and ruin ; 

And, whereas, in the opinion of the members of this Conven- 
tion, the only sure, practicable, and never-failing mode of reform- 
ing and purifying the Government, and correcting the evils 
under which the taxpayers of the State are now being despoiled 
of their property by a system of legalized robbery, called taxa- 
tion, IS to change the character of the Government by changing 
the officers who compose and constitute it, and put none but 
honest, competent, and reliable men in office. 

And, whereas, this change can only be certainly completed and 
permanently effected by neutralizing and overcoming the exist- 
ing negro majority in the State by bringing white men into the 
State. Therefore, be it 

Eesolved, That this Convention do at once organize a Bureau 
of Immigration, to consist of one Commissioner for the State at 
large, and one Commissioner for each County in the State, to re- 
side at or near the County seat. 

Jlesolved^ That the said Commissioners of Immigration shall 
be elected, by ballot, by this Convention, immediately after the 
adoption of these Resolutions. 

Jiesolved^ That it shall be the duty of the Commissioner of the 
State at large to visit the large cities of the Union and else- 
where, at his discretion, and by public speeches and by written 
and printed pamphlets and other papers, and by other means 
which, in his judgment, may be best calculated to accomplish the 
object, to induce, promote, and encourage white immigration to 
the State. When in the State he shall use his influence and 
efforts in the same direction, and shall, from time to time, as he 
may deem necessary, publish a statement of such advantages as 
the State offers in soil, climate, productions, social improve- 
ments, etc., to the industrious, honest, and frugal white immi- 
grant, no matter from what State or country he comes. 

Resolved^ That the said Commissioner, assisted in the several 
, Counties by the local Commissioner, shall be specially charged 
with the protection of the immigrants, in the proper selection of 
their lands, in the procurement of transportation, in the guard- 
ing them against fraud, chicanery, and peculation, in their tem- 
porary location in proper and reasonable places of board and 
lodging on their arrival, and in making all such regulations 
andprovisions as may be in any manner necessary or conducive 
to their welfare. 



23 

Ilesolved, That it sliall be tlio duty of each County Commis- 
sioner of Immigration to call a meeting of the citizens of liis 
County, wlio arc in favor of white immigration, to be held at the 
Court House of his C^ounty, on the first Monday in April next, 
and lay before them the subject and importance of immigration, 
and, if possible, effect a permanent organization, to act in con- 
cert with, and as an auxiliary to the Commissioner for the Stale 
at large, and take such further steps as maybe deemed advisable 
to promote the objects in view. 

liesolved, That it shall be the duty of the said County Com- 
missioner to ascertain, from the land-owners of his County what 
lands are to be sold, or given away, as the case may be; and, if 
for sale, on what terms; and to take down and jjreserve for refer- 
ence, a brief description and the location thereof, and report the 
same, from time to time, to the Commissioner of the State at 
large, so that, Avhen immigrants arrive in the country, they may 
at once be provided for. 

Ilesolved, That the Commissioner for the State at large shall 
have his actual printing and travelling expenses paid, and receive 

an annual salary of dollars, the money to be raised by }>ri- 

vate contributions from the citizens of the State favorable to the 
scheme of immigration as herein set forth. 

j\[r. Woodruff, of Spartanburg, introduced the following, whicli 
was referred to the Executive Committee: 

Ixesoloed, That a Committee be appointed to memorialize tlie 
State Legislature upon the subjects of our assessments of proper- 
ty and of excessive taxation. 

Mr. Louis 1). DeSaussure, of Charleston, presented the follow- 
ing Preamble and Resolutions, which were likewise referred to 
the Executive Committee: 

Whereas, it has become evident to all good citizens and tax- 
payers, that enormous sums are raised annually by taxation, far 
exceeding what is necessary to legitimately carry on tlie proper 
and economical administration of the State Government, and that 
the funds so raised are misapplied, and used to the personal ad- 
vantage of corrupt persons holding office, and that notwithstand- 
ing the annual increasing sums raised by taxation, year by year, 
the taxpayers are assessed to make up deficiencies of the pre- 
vious year, until the burthen has become too heavy to carry. 
Be it, therefore, 



24 

licsolved, That as taxpayers, in solemn Convention assembled, 
to protect onr property from nltimate confiscation, we protest 
against the enormous and unjust assessment of property and 
taxation. 

Jiesolved, That to carry on the just expenses of the State Gov- 
ernment it is necessary to raise by taxation only $1,290,000, which 
is three times the appropriation prior to 1860, and that we recom- 
mend to the Leo-islature to lix a rate of taxation and assessment 
which will raise only this sum. 

Besolved, That we recommend to the taxpayers of the State 
not to pay any taxes hereafter if the tax act arbitrarily and op- 
pressively is Hxed on a higher basis, and that the taxpayers in 
each County form themselves into convenient local associations 
to support and protect each otlier from tlie collection of oppres- 
sive taxation. 

Eesolved, That tlie Executive Committee be empowered to 
employ eminent counsel of South Carolina and elsewhere, for 
the purpose of bringing civil suits and criminal prosecutions 
a2:ainst such persons in and out of the State who have improp- 
erly and fraudulently used the funds, credit, stocks, and bonds 
of the State. 

Resolved, That the Executive Committee, through their coun- 
sel, take legal measures to ascertain, by final judicial decision, the 
actual legal debt of the State. 

llesoUed, That to pay the expenses necessary for so extensive 
a prosecution ol fraud, that the taxpayers of tlie State be assessed 
$1.50 on each $100 of the taxes paid this year, and that theDel- 
eo:ates from each County organize, and be charged with the col- 
lection of these amounts. 

liesolved. That the Executive Committee elect a Treasurer, to 
whom shall be forwarded tlie amounts collected, which shall be 
paid out only under such regulations as they may determine on. 

Resolved, That the members of the bar of the State be earn- 
estly invited to join in this movement, and volunteer their ser- 
vices in each County, to investigate and bring to public retribu- 
tion, the nefarious acts of corrupt persons. 

Col. F. W. McMaster, of Richland, moved the following, which 
was likewise referred to the Executive Committee: 

Whereas, the Constitution of this State, Section 30, declares 
that "all property subject to taxation shall be taxed in i>ropor- 
tion to its value ;" 

And, Avhereas, there is great complaint of the excessive assess- 
ments of real estate made by the Equalization Boards throughout 
the State, reaching in some cases to ten times the cash market 



25 

value, and in a nuiltitude of instances to thn^c or I'our time;', its 

value; 

And, whereas, ])etitions for reduction of assessments are ordi- 
narily disregarded, and the opportunity to rectify these abuses 
by the Courts is impeded by unjust restrictions; therefore, be it 

Resolved^ That this Convention do memorialize tlie Legisla- 
ture to relieve the taxpayers from these evils by passing a law — 

1. To declare that the word value in the thirty-sixth Section 
of the Constitution, is construed to mean cash value in United 
States currency at the time of the assessment. 

2. That any citizen dissatisfied with the assessment of his 
])roperty may appeal from the decision of the Comptroller to a 
Trial Justice Court, with a jury of six men, with a right to 
appeal, and the decision of the jury shall be the assessment for 
taxation. 

3. That when the assessments are completed in any County, 
the County Auditor shall give public notice thereof for three 
weeks, and any person dissatisfied may apply by petition for a 
reduction of assessment to the Comptroller, with the riglit^ of 
appeal to the Court for one month after he receives the decision 
of the Comptroller, and that the collection of taxes in such case 
be suspended until determined by the decision of the Court. 

After some general discussion as to the hour of meeting to- 
morrow, the Convention adjourned to 10 o'clock A. M. 



PROCEEDINGS OF SECOND DAY. 

Wednesday, February 18. 

I'ursuant to atljournment, the Convention convened at 10 A. 
M. to-day. 

The following Delegates having arrived since last atljournment 
were enrolled: 

Ahhemlle.—^h\ J. L. Miller, Mr. R. A. Griftin. 
Beaufort.—Mv. Wm. S. Tillinghast. 

Charleston. — Maj. Franz Melchers. 

Colleton.— M'^]. Arnoldus Vanderhorst, Mr. J. M. Fenceel. 
Edgefield.— Mv. W. L. Durst. 
Fairfield. — Dr. James R. Aiken. 

Geor(jetovm.—Qo\. B. M. Allston, Mr. R. E. Fraser. 
4 



26 

Laurens. — Mr. Jolni C. Davis. 
JSfewherry. — Mr. L. J. Jones. 
Spartcmhurg. — Mr. John H. Evans. 
Sumter. — Mr. John S. Bradley. 

On motion of Mr. J. M. Miller, of Aiken, Mr. C. Comstock, of 
Home, New York, a Correspondent of the Xew York World, 
was invited to a seat on the- floor of the Convention. 

Mr. E. E. Sell, of Charleston, moved "that the Standing Com- 
mittee appointed to prepare a plan of relief for the people, be 
requested to report at or before the Session to-morrow, Thurs- 
day morning." After some discussion, this motion was with- 
drawn. 

The President then made the following appointments, viz: 

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. 

Hon. James Chestnut, Chairman. Gen. John Bratton. 

Gen. Johnson Hagood. Gen. Wm. Wallace. 

Hon. John L. Manning. Mr. C. S. Brice. 

Hon. A. r. Aldrich. " Maj. J. J. Lucas. 

Hon. Thos. Y. Simons. Mr. B. H. Wilson. 

Col. John D. Wylie. Mr. R. M. Sims. 

Maj. John H. Screven. Hon. W. E. Holcombe. 

Col. J. A. Hoyt. Capt. F. W. Dawson. 

Col. AYm. Elliott. Col. A. D. Frederick. 

Hon. M. L. Bonhani. Hon. J. B. Jeter. 

Gen. 31. C. Butler. 

COMMITTEE ON ]\rEM01lIAL TO COXGHESS. 

Hon. A. Burt, Chairman. Col. E. S. Keitt. 

Col. li. H. Kutledge. Hon. W. D. Johnson. 

Col. Richard Lathers. Col. Cadwallader Jones. 

Hon. Geo. A. Trenholm. Mr. B. P. Chatfield. 

COMMITTEE OX STATE AND MUNICIPAL TAXATIOX. 

Hon. Charles H. Simonton, Chairman. 
Mr. B. Z. Herndon. Mr. J. A. Givens. 

Col. J. A. Hoyt. Mr. H. H. Easterling. 

Mr. J. G. Thompson. Maj. S. P. Hamilton. 

Gen. E. B. C. Cash. Mr. W. L. Reynolds. 

Maj. A. Vanderhorst. Mr. Lewis Jones. 



Mr. G. II. MclVrastcr. 
Mr. W. A. Mooney. 
C^ol. J. D. Wylie. 
Mr. Gerhard Mil 11 or. 
Hon. C. W. Dudley, 
llev. Douglass Harrison. 
Hon. W. E. Holconibe. 
Mr. W. I\[. Foster. 
j\[r. B. PI. Rice. 
Mr. A. B. Springs. 
Mr. S. Strother. 
Gen. W. II. Wallace. 

Mr. 



Mr. AV. W.Walker. 
Gen. J. D. Kennedy. 
Mr. R. S. Griffin. 
Gen. Wni. Evans. 
:\laj. J. K. G. Vance. 
Mr. W. T. Reeves. 
Mr. E. J. Scott. 
Col. J. B. Moore. 
Mr. S. W. Maurice. 
Mr. John Conant. 
Mr. J. M. Millei". 
Mr. r>. F. Williamson. 
J. E. Tindall. 



('OA[MlTTEE OX ADDRESS TO PEOPLE OF THE STATE. 

Gen. J. B. Kershaw, Chairman. 
Mr. C. Richardson Miles. Capt. J. S. Richardson. 

I\Ir. A. B. Woodruft: Mr. F. A. Conner. 

Mr. Iredell Jones. Gen. John Bratton. 

COM:\riTTEE ox EXPEX^SES AND PRIXTIXG. 



Mr. E. J. Scott, Chairman. 



Mr. J. II. Kinsler. 
Mr. H. A. Gaillard. 
Mr. W. G. Mayes. 



Mr. J. C. Shepjjard. 
Col. C. Irvine Walker. 
Mr. Louis D. DeSaussnre 



co:\r:s[iTTEE ox immicratiox'. 

Gen. M. W. Gary, Chairman. 
Mr. B. F. Williamson. Mr. W. M. Lawton. 

Col. L. P. Miller. Maj. F. Melchers. 

Dr. James R. Aiken, Mr. W. A. Mooney. 

Mr. E. E. Sell. Mr. S. W. Maurice. 

On motion, ]\[essrs. S. W. Maurice, of Williamsburg; F. W. 
McMaster, of Richland; E. M. Boykin, of Kershaw; and M. 
Baum, of Kershaw, were added to the Committee on Immiora- 
tion. 

Mr. Joseph Galluchat to the Committee on Address to the 
People of the State. 

And Mr. W. R. Johnson to the Committee on Taxation. 

Mr. David Leggett, of Marion, introduced certain Resolutionsj 
which were referred to the Executive Committee. 



28 

Mr. C. IT. MoisG, of Sumter, offered the following, which were 
referred to the Committee on State and Municipal Taxation. 

Wliereas, the Poll Tax, devoted by law to the great cause of 
])0])ular education, would, if properly collected, yield to the Treas- 
ury about one hundred and forty thousand dollars; 

And, whereas, not more than one-third of this amount was col- 
lected in either 1871 or 1872 ; therefore, 

Ilesolved^ That the Committee on Taxation be, and are here- 
by, requested to report to this Convention a plan whereby the 
collection of the Poll Tax may be enforced. 

Mr. C. S. Brice, of Cliester, introduced Resolutions in refer- 
ence to State Taxation, which were referred to the Committee on 
State and Municipal Taxation. 

Mr. C. Richardson Miles, of Charleston, offered the following 
Preamble and Resolutions, and, by leave of the Convention, first 
read the following: 

STATEMENT OF FACTS. 

Among the topics brought to the attention of this Convention 
during its Session in May, 1871, was "the wilful refusal of the 
State to pay the past due Fire Loan Debt and interest, and the 
co!isequent injury to the credit of the State." 

The subject was discussed at some length b}' the representa- 
tive from Charleston, who first addressed the Convention. Sub- 
sequently a Committee of five was appointed to investigate and 
report a plan to restore the credit of the State, and to confer 
with the representatives of the Fire Loan Securities which had 
been practically repudiated by the State authorities, with a view 
to repair the damage to the good faith and honor of the State by 
influencing an early liquidation of these obligations. This Com- 
mittee did not make a report. 

The Committee of eleven, in the Report upon the Finances of 
the State, report as part of the valid debt of the State, which the 
taxpayers must meet — 

The Fire Loan Bonds (Baring's Loan) $440,000 

Fire Loan Stock held in United States 304,000 

Amount of principal over due $744,000 

t 

The Committee say: " The $744,000 of over due Bonds consti- 
tute so much of the Fire Loan Debt for which the capital of the 



29 



Bank of tlic State is pledged, and your Committee indulge the 
hope that it may be dischargad from that source." This report 
was adopted, tn the Schedule of the debt of the State, publish- 
ed in the oflicial proceedings of the Convention, the Fire Loan 
Debt is put down as $788,222.27. It is probably known to all 
the members of the Convention tliat the assets of the Bank of the 
State constitute " A Fund in Court," in the case of Bahney, 
Morgan S Co.^ vs. the President and Directors of the Bank of 
the State of ^'<outh Carolina. This case was commenced in the 
Court of Fquity, Charleston, in October, 18G7, and was insti- 
tuted by the Billholders of the Bank, to subject the assets of the 
Bank, which was insolvent, to payment of the Bills, and for the 
distribution of the assets among the creditors. 

There were four classes of creditors claiming the assets, who 
were parties to the cause: First, the holders of the Fire Loan 
Bonds, represented by Baring Brothers & Co., of London; second, 
the holders of the Fire Loan'Stock, payable in the United States; 
third, the Billholders; and, fourth, the Depositors and other 
creditors. The State, through the Attorney General, was also a 
party to the cause. 

In 1868 the Legislature passed an Act "to close the opera- 
tions of the Bank of the State," which required the Governor to 
take possession of all the assets of the Bank, and to sell the same 
and deposit the proceeds in the Treasury of the State, subject to 
his order. The officers of • the Bank refused to deliver up the 
the assets, and upon 3Iandamus^ brought to compel them to do 
so, sued out by the Attorney General, the Supreme Court of the 
State declared the Act unconstitutional, because it impaired the 
oblio:ation of a contract, and decided that the assets of the Bank 
cons'tituted "A Fund in Equity," which was to be administered 
by the Court for the benefit of the creditors entitled thereto. A 
Decree in the cause was made by Judge Carpenter, on 7th May, 
1870, which decided that the assets should be distributed; first, 
among the Fire Loan Bondholders and the Fire Loan Stock- 
holders, in equal proportion; second, that the surplus should be 
divided, ratably, among the Billholders, Depositors, and General 
Creditors of the Bank. An appeal was taken to the Supreme 
Court of the State, which was finally argued in April, 1871, and 
the Decree of that Court was filed in December, 1871. 

The decree held : First, that the fire loan stockholders were 
creditors of the State, but were not creditors of the Bank, and 
therefore not entitled to any portion of the assets of the Bank. 
Second, that the assets should be distributed among all the 
creditors of tlie bank, bondholders, billholders, depositors and 
other general creditors, in ratable proportion to their respective 
debts. 



30 

From the decree of the Supreme Court of the State an appeal 
was taken by the bondhohlers and stockholders to the Supreme 
Court of the United States; tlie Fire Loan Bondholders claiming 
to be entitled to be first paid in full from the assets of the Bank 
by A^irtue of a contract made Avith them by the Act of 1865, and 
the Fire Loan Stockholders claiming to be equally entitled to be 
paid from the assets of the Bank. A iinal argument was had 
before the Supreme Court of the United States in December 
last. The Court did not render a decision before its adjourn- 
ment, but it is expected that their decision will be liled when 
they reassembled on the 2d March. 

As soon as this decision is made the funds in Court must 
be distributed among the creditors. 

Both the Circuit decree and the decree of the Supreme Court 
of the State declare that in the event of any deficiency of the 
assets of the Bank to pay in full all the debts, the faith and funds 
of the State are pledged to make good the deficiency. The 
Chief Justice, in the opinion of the Supreme Court of the State, 
says that "the liability of the State for the debts of the Bank 
established on behalf of and for the benefit of the State, has 
never been questioned, denied, or even qualified by a single act 
or resolution of the General Assembly;" and that the liability of 
the State does not rest alone on the charter of the Bank and its 
legislation on the subject, but on the fact, which has been judi- 
cially decided, that the State has not only received back from 
the Bank the whole capital, with interest on it, but is largely in- 
debted to the Bank, and that the fund so held by the State is 
charged with such a trust in favor of creditors as a Court of 
Equity would enforce and compel an application of the same to 
the satisfaction of their debts. 

The Governor in his last annual message to the Legislature in 
October last says, in relation to the Fire Loan Bonds and 
Stocks : 

"In my opinion these Bonds and Stocks, amounting in the 
aggregate to ^785,288.20, which are now past due and payable, 
and also the three per cents, making a total of 1824,124, are not 
an actual but a contingent liability of the State." After a state- 
ment of the origin of the Fire Loan debts and of the legislation 
on the subject, and the receipt by the State of the money from 
the sales of the Bonds and Stocks, he adds : "Li justice, there- 
fore, to the taxpayers of the State, the assets of the Bank, which 
have repeatedly been solemnly pledged and set apart for the 
redemption of these Bonds and Stocks, ought to be immediately 
so applied. * * j r^^^ aware that the available assets of the 
Bank, according to the reports of the Legislative Committee of 
1868, appointed to investigate this matter, if sold, would proba- 



31 

Ijly be insufficient to cancel this entire indebtedness, viz., 
1824,124; but tliese facts have been adduced to show that they 
should be so applied as far as they will go, and the deficiency, if 
any, could afterwards be provided for by the Legislature." 

It being thus conceded by all departments of the State Gov- 
ernment — Legislative, Executive and Judicial — that the State is 
pledged to make good any deficiency of tlie assets of the Bank 
to meet these debts, it is a matter of small moment to the State 
in what order the assets of the Bank are applied in i)ayment of 
the debts. The deficiency to be made good by the State will 
i-emain the same, whether in the distribution of the assets one 
class of creditors is preferred to another, or whether the assets 
are divided proportionably among all the creditors of every 
class. 

But the State is vitally interested in the iweservation of the 
assets of the Bank, and in the honesty economical, and speedy 
application of those assets to the payment of the debts, so as to 
make the deficiency for which the State is ultimately liable as 
small as possible. And the interest of the State is the interest of 
the taxpayers of the State, represented by this Convention. IT 
this body re])resents, as it claims to do, those who must pay the 
valid debt of the State, then it is concerned in everything which 
constitutes a part of the assets applicable to the payment of such 
debt, and it is its duty to inform itself, and its constituents, of 
the condition and value of that which should be used to decrease 
the valid debt of the State, and thus diminish the burden upon 
the taxpayers. 

What, then, is the present condition and value of this Fund in 
Court, now on the eve of distribution ? and how has it been ad- 
ministered by tliose charged with the grave trust for the benefit 
of the meritorious creditors of the Bank and the State, to whom 
it is dedicated? From the commencement of the suit, in 1867, 
the assets of the Bank were alloAved to remain in the custody of 
C. M. Furman, the President, and Thomas W. Waring, the 
Cashier, of the Bank, until 1869, during which time the old 
debts due by individuals to the Kank were assiduously collected. 
In April, 1869, the then Attorney General (Hon. D. H. Cham- 
berlain) moved for the appointment of a Receiver, to whom the 
funds should be turned over by the President and Cashier of tlie 
Bank. The motion was opposed by all the Solicitors represent- 
ing creditors, but was granted by Judge Carpenter, upon the 
ground, that as the State was undoubtedly liable to make good 
any deficiency in the assets, the Attorney General representing 
the State should have the controlling influence in determining 
who should have the custody of the fund. Mr. William C. 
Courtney was appointed Receiver, on the 22d April, 1869, and 



32 

all the assets were turned over to him by the officers of the 
Bank. 

On the 22d April, 1871, a petition was filed by J. L. Neagle, 
Comptroller General of the State, praying the appointment of a 
lleceiver for the Bank, under the Act of 18 — ■. An order was 
thereupon made, requiring the Attorney General and Solicitors 
in the cause to show cause why the prayer of the petition should 
not be granted. The return of the Attorney General and all the 
Solicitors protested against the appointment of another Ileceiver, 
upon the ground that a Receiver had already been appointed, 
'unth lohose administration they were entirely satisfied, and that a 
oievj appointment would charge the fund 'with additional and un- 
necessary commissions and expenses. This return being deemed 
sufficient cause, the rule was discharged by Judge Graham, and 
the petition abandoned. Notwithstanding this protest of the 
Attorney General and the Solicitors against the appointment of 
another Receiver, Judge Graham, as Avill be seen, has appointed 
two other Receivers, without notice to the Solicitors — one after 
the final argument in the Supreme Court of the State, and one 
after the final argument in the Supreme Court of the United 
States. 

The aggregate commissions of the three Receivers is fifteen 
per cent, of the entire fund. 

Alter the appointment of Mr. Courtney as Receiver, several 
loans from the funds were made to individuals by order of tlie 
Judge. 

In May, 1871, Attorney-General Chamberlain wrote to the 
Solicitors of the Fire Loan Bondholders, protesting, in the name 
of the State, against the funds, which had been collected with 
great trouble and expense from the debtors of the Bank, being 
again loaned out to individuals, and upon insuflicient security, 
after the final argument of the cause had been had before the 
Supreme Court and a speedy distribution might be expected. 
This letter, which the Solicitors were authorized to show to 
Judge Graham, (who had succeeded Judge Carpenter as Judge 
of the First Circuit) was accompanied by an order which he pro- 
posed in the cause if assented to by the Solicitors of the credi- 
tors. This order of the Attorney-General, consented to by the 
Solicitors, Judge Graham refused to grant, but the Court, "on 
its own motion," filed an order in the cause on the 2d June, 1871, 
as follows : 

^''Final argument in this cause being had^ and pending the de- 
cision of the Sujyreme Court, it is ordered that no further appli- 
cations for loans from the assets of the Banh of the State loill he 
entertained!''' 

The order of the Jst July, 1870, authorizing the Receiver to 



33 

sell tlie assets niul property, with the consent of tlie Solicitors in 
tlie cause, was rescinded, and the lleceiver was ordered to report 
all sales made by him under that order. From this time there is 
no order in the cause on lile wiiich has any evidence of having 
been made after previous notice to the Solicitors in the cause. 

On the 5th July, 1871, Judge Graham, on his own motion, 
and, as appears, Avithout notice to the Attorney-General or Soli- 
citors, filed an order, which recites that final argument before the 
Supreme Court had been luid, "and that tlie period for ultimate 
distribution of the fund cannot be longer postponed, and for the 
purpose of ensuring an early and prompt distribution confor- 
mable to the final judgment of the case, to the end that the State 
of South Carolina should as soon as ])racticable be relieved, in 
proportion to the assets and property of the Bank, of the sus- 
pended debt for which the State is liable;" and lor the purposes 
of this distribution appoints Wm. J. Gayer, Esq., Referee in the 
cause, and the Receiver is ordered to turn over to said Referee 
all the assets of the Bank, upon his entering into bond, Avith 
two or more sureties, in the sum of ^$30,000. 

The said Referee was ordered to audit the accounts of the 
Receiver and report a list of the assets Avith an appraisement of 
their value. The Clerk of the Court Avas ordered to serve copies 
of this order on the Solicitors in the cause. On the 11th July, 
1871, an order Avas made confirming the report of the Referee on 
the Receiver's accounts, and discharging the Receiver. With 
this report Avas filed a list of the assets turned over to the Ref- 
eree, Mr. Gayer, by the Receiver, Mr. Courtney, with an ap- 
praisement of their value by responsible Brokers at over 
1760,000. On the same day an order Avas filed appointing the 
said William J. Gayer Receiver of the fund, and alloAving him a 
commission of two and a half per cent, upon all assets and 
l^roperty turned over to him, and tA\'0 and a half per cent, on all 
2>ayments made by him. 

Attorney-General Melton, in his report to the Legislature at 
the regular session of 1873-'74, in relation to this case, says : 
"In 1871, W. C. Courtney, Esq., Avas removed from oftice as Re- 
ceiver, and Wm. J. Gayer, Esq., appointed in his stead by Judge 
Graham. This order Avas made without notice to the Attorney - 
General, and I have not been informed of the reasons Avhich led 
to it. Inasmuch as the fund Avas being administered by the 
Court for the benefit of parties in the first instance, Avho Avere 
adequately represented by counsel in Charleston, it gaA'e me no 
concern, until in June last I learned that since his appointment 
the Referee had made no report AvhatCA^er to the Court. 

" Upon my application, then made. Judge Graham granted an 
order directing the Receiver to make a full Report, fixing the 
5 



date on the first of December. For reasons not necessary here 
to be stated, I have consented to a postponement of the time to 
the first Monday of Febrnary. Whilst I am confident this post- 
ponement will result in material benefit to the fund, it will not 
})ractically delay the final disposition of the case, to which the 
Court cannot proceed until the decision of the Supreme Court of 
the United States has been rendered," 

Notwithstanding tli*e order of 2d June, 1871, that "no further 
.applications for loans from the assets of the Bank will be enter- 
tained," which does not appear to have been rescinded from Au- 
gust, 1871, to Jst January, 1874, a number of orders were filed, 
directing the Receiver to lend out the money of the fund to individ- 
uals and to corporations upon various securities, real and personal, 
to change investments, to sell securities, and to receive payment of 
loans in the Bills of the Bank of the State at par; all of which 
orders appear to have been made by the Judge at Chambers, 
and Avithout notice to the Attorney General or the Solicitors in 
the cause. 

In December, 1873, the Legislature passed the following Joint 
Resolution: 

" Whereas, it is reported that the assets of the Bank of the 
State are in an unsatisfactory condition, and that the Receiver 
has not made the Report required of him by order of the Court; 
and, whereas, the holders of a large portion of the State debt 
have a first hen upon the assets of the Bank, which would be 
satisfied by a prompt administration of its affairs, now delayed 
by some unknown cause; therefore, be it 

'"'■Resolved^ That a Committee of five on the part of the House 
of Representatives, and five on the part of the Senate, be ap- 
pointed, with authority to thoroughly investigate the condition 
of the Bank of tlie State, and to send for persons and papers, and 
ordered to report to the General Assembly at the earliest practi- 
cable moment the condition of the said Bank." 

Tills Joint Committee met in Charleston about the 15th Jan- 
uary last, and examined a large number of witnesses, including 
some of the Solicitors in the cause. 

On the 27th January, Judge Graham, without notice to Attor- 
ney General or any of the Solicitors, filed an order directing the 
Receiver, Mr. Gayer, to turn over to the Clerk of the Court all 
the assets and property of the Bank; and the Clerk is ordered to 
audit accounts of the said W. J. Ga^^er, and report the same to 
the Court. On the next day (28th January) the report of the 
Clerk, stating that he had audited the accounts of the Receiver, 
and found them correct, and that the Receiver had turned over 
to him all the assets, a list of which was filed with this Report, 
was confirmed, and the said W. J. Gayer was discharged from 



all accountability by reason of liis IteceivcrsLij) and an exonere- 
tur'y^ ordered to be entered on his bond. 

The Solicitors of the Fire Loan Bondholders immediately 
served a notice npon tlie Attorney General and Judge Graham 
that they would, on ]\[onday, the 16th February, move to set 
aside the orders made by Judge Graham on the 27th and 28tli 
January. On Monday, the 9th February, tlie Attorney General 
stated, in open Court, that he would not object to the order 
moved for rescinding the orders of 27th and 28th January, and 
that he was of opinion that a Receiver of the fund should be ap- 
pointed. On the same day. Judge Graham filed an order ap- 
pointing C. C. Puifer, Esq., then, and still one, of the Joint Com- 
mittee of the Legislature, to investigate the condition of the 
assets of the Bank, the Receiver of the said fund. 

On the 11th February, Judge Graham liled an order reopening 
the order made on 28th January, conhrming the Report of the 
Clerk of the Court upon the accounts of the late Receiver, AY. J. 
Gayer, and ordering said accounts to be taken off the files of the 
Court, and referred back to Mr. Gayer, to be restated and cor- 
rected, and submitted to the Court for reconsideration and ap- 
proval. 

On the same day an order was filed " that three orders of the 
23d January last, authorizing certain investments, and the 
changes of investments, be rescinded, and taken off the files, and 
any action taken under the same be cancelled. On the same day 
an order was filed that the order of 24th January last, directing 
the Receiver to receive Bank of the State Bills in payment be 
rescinded and taken off the files, nothing having been done un- 
der authority of the same. 

The bond of C. C. Puffer, as Receiver, in the penal sum of 
$30,000, executed by four sureties, was approved on the 9th Feb- 
ruary, and filed on the 13th of February, and on the 14th the 
entire assets of the Bank were turned over to liim by the Clerk 
of the Court. 

These statements, taken altogether from ofiicial sources, are 
quite sufiicient to show, not only that the present condition and 
value of the assets of the Bank, whicli are to be applied to the 
extinguishment of so much of the debt of the State as the tax- 
payers will have to meet, is a subject which is germain to the 
objects and purposes of this Convention, but that tlie mode in 
wdiich the trust has been administered demands investigation at 
the hands of a body which has assembled with the avowed object of 
exposing, denouncing, and correcting the wrongs and evils under 
whicli we sutter, by whatever department of the State Govern- 
ment inflicted, whether Legislative, Executive, or Judicial. It is 
openly asserted by those who have the most immediate interest 



36 

in these assets — and their assertion is confirmed by the informa- 
tion driven by some who are familiar with tlie evidence taken by 
the Investii>:ation Joint Committee — that the probable present 
value of the assets, which were appraised when turned over by 
Mr. Courtney to Mr. Gayer, in 1871, at upwards of $760,000, is 
less than $350,000; and while rumor is busy with the names of 
those who are supposed to have benefited by the wrongs, or to 
have been responsible for their commission, there are not want- 
ino- those Avho tauntingly and sneeringly assert that the political 
or party affiliations, the ofiicial position or social standing, and 
personal consequence of the supposed perpetrators, will shield 
them from exposure or censure by this body, and those whom it 
is supposed we represent. But, if this Convention is to exert 
any influence at home or abroad, it must be as representing the 
character as well as the 'property of the State; its action will have 
weio'ht only so far as it commands the confidence and respect of 
the people ; and that can be secured only by a fair and calm, 
but, at the same time, % fearless investigation of all wrong, cor- 
ruption, fraud, and dereliction from duty, Avhich aftect the inter- 
ests of those whom it represents, and are within the legitimate 
scope and sphere of the purposes for which it has assembled. It 
is true, not only that "those who would be free, themselves must 
strike the blow," but that those wdio would purify others, must 
themselves be pure. Should this Convention be so inconsistent 
with its former action, and with the purposes which it professes, 
as to leave untouched their grievance, which is so palpable, and 
which has already attracted so much attention and elicited so 
much comment, its influence for good in exposing and denounc- 
ing other frauds and corruptions will be utterly paralyzed, and 
it will be better that it should never have met. Impressed with 
these convictions, and influenced by no other consideration than 
a sense of duty, I have made these remarks, and offered the fol- 
lowing Preamble and Resolutions: 

Whereas, the assets of the Bank of the State constitute a fund 
in Court in the case of Dahney^ Morgan & Co., vs. the President 
and Directors of the Bank of the State et al, wdiich is to be dis- 
tributed among the creditors as soon as the final decree of the 
Supreme Court of the United States is made, by which payments 
the liability of the State for past due debts will be to that extent 
diminished, to the relief of the tax-payers of the State, and the 
tax-payers are therefore directly interested in the honest preser- 
' vation and management and proper appropriation of said assets 
among the creditors entitled thereto, and have the right to be 
fully informed as to the past administration and the present con- 
dition and value of said funds, so to be applied for their relief; 
and whereas it has been repeatedly alleged and is generally be- 



lieved that proceedings liave been liad and orders made in said 
cause, without notice to the Solicitors or parties in the cause 
entitled to the said fund, under which the said fund has been 
loaned out on insufficient and unavailable securities, and loans 
which have been sufficiently secured have been paid in bills of 
the said Bank, at the par value, whereby the said assets have been 
wasted, and the value of the s;ud fund very greatly diminished, 
o-eneral suspicion and distrust have been created, and the action 
of the Court, the Receiver, and the borrowers of tlie said fund, 
have been generally and publicly inii)ugned; and Avhereas the 
Legislature have appointed a Joint Committee to thoroughly in- 
vestigate the condition of the said fund and report the same at 
the earliest practicable moment, and said Joint Committee has 
already taken testimony as to the management and the present 
condition of the said fund, but has not as yet made any report; 
but pending the said investigation one of the said Joint Com- 
mittee has been appointed Receiver of the said fund against the 
protest of those representing the creditors entitled to the said 
fund; and whereas it is the duty of this Convention to the tax- 
payers of the State thoroughly and impartially and fearlessly to 
investigate all the proceedings had in relation to the said assets 
of the Bank to the end that those unjustly accused and suspected 
may be vindicated, and that just censure and reprobation shall, 
regardless of political opinions, party affiliation, official position 
or social standing, fall upon all wdio^ have contributed to, con- 
uived at or benefited by the improper administration of said 
fund and Avasting of said assets : 

Resolved^ That a Committee of five be appointed by the Pres- 
ident, whose duty it shall be to confer with the Joint Commit- 
tee appointed by the Legislature, and obtain their report and the 
testimony taken by them; to confer with the representatives of 
the creditors entitled to the said assets, and to make such 
other and further investigation as may be necessary to discover 
and disclose whatever of corrupt practice and misconduct or 
fraud may have been committed in relation thereto, and how 
and by whom committed, and to obtain and report all such in- 
formation as will enable this Convention and the people of the 
State to know whether the said assets have been wasted, and by 
whose means, and who are responsible therefor. 

llesolved^ That said Committee do also obtain and publish 
Avith their report a statement of the changes of investment of 
said fund which have been made, the reason and consideration 
thereof, and under wdiat authority, including changes in the 
securities taken as collaterals for investments, loans or deposits, 
and under what authority; the total amount of cash loaned out, 
invested, or deposited; to Avhom loaned, how invested, or with 



38 

wliom deposited; Avhen, upon what terms, how secured, and by 
what authority made, and when and how the same, or any part 
thereof, has been paid, and by what authority received, and the 
present appraised value of said assets. 

Resolved^ That said Committee have leave to publisli tlieir re- 
port with the official proceedings of tliis Convention. 

Adopted. 

The preamble and resolutions were referred to the Executive 
Committee. 

Mr. S. W. Maurice, of Williamsburg, moved 

That all Resolutions and other propositions offered to this 
Convention shall first be read without remarks or discussion, and 
be then at once referred to its appropriate Committee; and no 
discussion shall be in order until the subject matter shall be re- 
ported to the Convention by the Committee. 

Mr. J. G. Thompson, of Beaufort, introduced the following, 
wliich was referred to the Executive Committee: 

Whereas, Hon. F. L. Cardozo has truly defined the duties of 
the State Treasurer, in his communication sent to the General 
Assembly on the lOtli instant, in regard to claims passed and ap- 
propriations made, in which he holds that it is his duty to stand 
between the State and the claimant, even though an appropria- 
tion has been made to pay the claim, and to see that the vouchers 
representing the claim are correct; and, whereas, we believe this 
view of his duties is a correct one: 

Resolved^ That we res])ectfully request the Hon. F. L. Cardozo 
to furnish the Executive Committee of this body with a copy of 
the vouchers upon which he paid $331,000 for the printing of the 
year 1873, it having been asserted by the contractor that he 
could have done the whole of the work for which this sum was 
paid for less than one-third of the amount. 

Mr. J. M. Williams, of Beaufort, moved the following, which 
was referred to the Executive Committee: 

Whereas, the chief reliance of this State for salvation rests 
upon the patriotism and energies of the young men ; and, whereas, 
their emigration in the past and present is not only unpatriotic, 
but greatly damaging to the future of this State; therefore, 

Resolved, That a Committee of five be appointed to prej^are 
an ai)peal to them upon this subject. 



39 

Mr. B. E. Klkin, of Fairfield, introduced the following, which 
was referred to the Executive Committee: 

Resolved, That tlie Executive Committee he recjuested to devise 
a plan for the arrest of the present unjust assessment of property 
in this State, whether by direct and regular re-assessment, or 
otherwise. 

Hon. A. P. Aldrich, of Barnwell, introduced the following 
llesolution, which was referred to the Executive Committee: 

Eesolved, That a Committee of one from each County, to be 
named by the respective delegations, be appointed, whose duty 
it shall be to appoint Committees in eacli County, to collect 
proofs of all violations of the law, misapplications or embezzle- 
ment of the public moneys, prosecute rigidly all offenders, and to 
draft a Constitution for the government of the Taxpayers' 
Lea2:ues. 



Mr. J. E. Tindall, of Clarendon, introduced the following 
Resolution, which was referred to the Executive Committee: 

Whereas, it is the sense of the Convention that five mills as- 
sessed upon the actual market value of the property of the State 
is sufficient to defray all the expenses of the State Government; 
therefore. 

Resolved, That the Convention recommends to the whole peo- 
ple of South Carolina, and we hereby solemnly pledge ourselves, 
not to pay in future any tax levied upon the property of the State 
exceeding that amount. 

Hon. John L. Manning, of Clarendon, introduced the follow- 
in <r Resolutions, which were referred to the Executive Com- 
mittee : 

Resolved, That this Convention of the Taxpayers of South 
Carolina entreat the sympathy of the Grangers of this State, and 
of the United States, in our effort to relieve our peojtle from an 
overburthen of tyranny and taxation. 

Resolved, That the Secretary of this Convention furnish to 
each Master of each State Grange a copy of the proceedings of 
this Convention when published. 

On motion, the Convention adjourned to 6 P. M. this evening. 



40 
EVENING SESSION. 

Wednesday, February 18, 1874. 

The Convention re-assembled and was called to order by the 
President at 6 o'clock, P. M. The Hon. Gabriel Cannon having 
arrived, was enrolled as a Delegate from Spartanburg. 

Mr. J. C. Sheppard, ot Edgefield, offered the following, which 
was immediately considered and adopted : 

Resolved^ That the President of this Convention be and he is 
hereby nominated and appointed Chairman of the Committee to 
1)0 appointed to present the address of the Memorial Committee 
to the Congress of the United States. 

The Executive Committee then made the following report: 

The Executive Committee to which was referred the resolutions 
of Mr. Thompson, of Beaufort, beg leave to report that they have 
considered the same, and recommend the following resolutions 
for the adoption of the Convention : 

Resolved^ Tliat Ave respectfully request the Hon. F. L. Car- 
dozo, the State Treasurer, to furnish the Convention with a copy 
of the vouchers upon which he paid |331,000 for the printing 
for the year 1873. 

Resolved^ That the President of the Convention appoint a 
Committee of three, who shall be charged with the execution of 
the resolution, and to report to this Convention. 

All of which is respectfully submitted. 

JAMES CIIESNUT, Chairman. 

The report and the resolutions having been adopted, the Pres- 
ident appointed the following Committee under the same : 

Mr. J. G. Thompson, Hon. Gabriel Cannon, and Mr. P. G. JM. 
Dunnovant. 

The Executive Committee recommended that the resolutions 
of Mr. J. M. Williams, which had been referred to them, be 
withdrawn, and referred to the Committee on Address to the 
people of the State, which was accordingly done. 

The Executive Committee made the following report, whicli 
was accepted : 

The Executive Committee, to whom was referred the resolu- 
tions of Mr. Leggett, of Marion County, asked to be discharged 



41 

from their further consideration, as the matters therein involved 
are included in other resolutions, now under consideration by 
other and appropriate Committees. 

The Executive Committee recommended that the resolution of 
Mr. Tindall, Avhich was offered to them, be withdrawn, and 
referred to the Committee on State and Municipal Taxation, 
which was accordingly done. 

On motion of Hon. C. W. Dudley, of Marlboro', the Conven- 
tion adjourned to 10 A. M. to-morrow. 



MORNING SESSION. 



TiiUKSDAY, February 19,1874. 

At 10 A. M., the Convention was called to order by the 
President. 

The following Delegates having arrived since the last adjourn- 
ment, were enrolled : 

Mr. Jones M. Williams, of Barnwell, and Mr. Jno. K. London, 
of York. 

Col. R. Lathers, of Charleston, rose to a personal explanation, 
denying certain allegations contained in the Columbia Daily 
TJnion^ of 18th inst., in relation to his having advised the issue 
of the Sterling Loan Bonds. 

On motion, Mr. J. C. Davis, of Laurens, was added to the 
Committee on Immigration, and Hon. C. W. Dudley, of Marl- 
boro', was added to the Executive Committee. 

Mr. C. H. Moise, of Sumter, introduced the following Pre- 
amble and Resolution, which was referred to the Committee on 
State and Municipal Taxation : 

Whereas, the poll tax, devoted by law to the great cause of 
popular education, would, if properly collected, yield to the 
treasury about 1140,000; and w4iereas not more than one-third of 
this amount was collected in either 1871 or 1872; therefore 

Resolved^ That the Committee on Taxation be and are hereby 
requested to report to this Convention a plan whereby the collec- 
tion of the poll tax may be enforced. 
6 



42 

Mr. J. M. Williams, of Beaufort, introduced the following 
Preamble and Resolutions, which were referred to the Committee 
on Immigration : 

Whereas, our grievances are mainly attributable to the want of 
organization, and without organization it is impossible to pre- 
vent the threatened confiscation of our property, and our conse- 
quent annihilation; therefore 

Resolved^ That we, the representatives of the tax-payers of 
this State, constituting the Tax-Payers' Convention, do resolve 
this Convention into a Society, to be known as the Tax-Payers' 
Immigration League. 

Resolved^ That the Delegations from the respective Counties 
be appointed Committees, and required to organize County So- 
cieties, a(s branches of this, the central Tax-Payers' Immigration 
League. 

Resolved^ That it be referred to a Committee to report a 
Constitution for this Society. 

Gen. James Chesnut, Chairman, asked leave for the Executive 
Committee to sit during the session of the Convention, which 
was granted. 

Mr. Dunnovant, at his request, was relieved from serving on 
the Committee to wait on the State Treasurer, and ]Mr. J. C. 
Sheppard, of Edgefield, substituted in his stead. 

Gen. M. W. Gary submitted the report of the Committee on 
Immigration. 

This Report was taken up for immediate consideration, and 
was explained and supported by the Chairman of the Committee. 

There followed a very general discussion, which was partici- 
pated in by Messrs. Chatfield, Panceel, Moise, Lawton, Richard- 
son, Williams, Trenholm, Butler, Tindall, and Dudley, 

Mr. C. II. Simonton, of Charleston, introduced the following 
Resolution: 

Resolved^ That the Report of the Committee on Immigration 
be recommitted to the Committee, with instructions to erase from 
the Report all allusion to political motive or purpose. 

The Resolution was adopted, and the Report recommitted. 
The Committee on Expenses and Printing reported the fol- 
lowing: 



43 

That they liave considered the subject, and are of the oi)inion 
that tlie expenses of the Convention shouhl be defrayed by the 
Delegates wlio are or have been in attendance, leavino; the cost 
of printing' and distributino; sucli documents or addresses as the 
Convention may order, to be paid by the several County organi- 
zations, in the ratio of tlieir respective representations in tlie 
Legishiture. 

The expenses of the Convention cannot, of course, now be as- 
certained, but we think an assessment of three doUars on eacli 
Delegal^e will be sufficient for the rent of this hall, the stationery, 
lights, etc., and for printing the journal of proceedings, excluding 
all speeches except the opening and closing addresses of the 
President; and for this purpose we recommend the adoption of 
the following Resolutions : 

liesolved^ That the Chairman of each delegation proceed fortli- 
with to collect from each of his colleagues the sum of three dol- 
lars, and pay over the amount, with his own assessment, to Mr. 
W. G. Mayes, of Newberry, a member of this Committee. 

Resolved^ That said Chairman be charged with the duty of 
collecting and forwarding to the Secretaries, or the Committee 
appointed to supervise the printing and circulation of documents, 
the amount assessed on his County, when notified what sum will 
be required. 

Your Committee has had struck off certificates for Delegates 
in attendance, to be used by them in obtaining a return of fare 
from the railroads, which will be delivered on application to the 
Secretaries. 

All which is respectfully submitted. 

EDWIN J. SCOTT, Chairman. 

The Executive Committee then made the following Report, 
which was adopted: 

The Executive Committee, to whicli was referred the Resolu- 
tion of Mr. Butler, of Edgefield, in reference to the appointment 
of a committee to present to the President of the United States 
the Address prepared on behalf of the people of this State to the 
people of the United States, respectfully report: 

That they have considered the same, and recommend its adop- 
tion by the Convention. 

Respectfully s>ibmitted. 

JAMES CHESNUT, Chairman. 

Mr. P. S. Felder, of Orangeburg, introduced the following 
Resolutions, which were referred to the Executive Committee: 



s 



44 

1. Resolved, That this assembly is truly the legitimate repre- 
sentatives of the propertyholders of the State. 

2. Resolved, That Government is organized solely for the 
protection of person and property. 

?>. Resolved, That in time of peace a tax to defray the economi- 
cal administration of a Government is all the Legislators have a 
right to impose, and all over that amount is nothing less than 
highway robbery. 

4. Resolved, That the present administrators of the Govern- 
ment of South Carolina are highway robbers, and should be dealt 
with accordingly. 

5. Resolved, That it is the duty of this assembly to arraign 
forthwith, and adopt such measures as will bring the present 
robbers of the people to justice, and that a tax of five mills on 
the amount of the last tax collected is imposed upon the citizen 
of the State for this purpose. 

G. Resolved, That a Receiver be appointed by this assembly for 
each County in this State, to collect the amount above imposed 
to defray the necessary expenses in the prosecution and convic- 
tion of these robbers. 

V. Resolved, That proceeding should be forthwith instituted 
to attach the taxes collected, in the hands of the Treasurer, until 
the constitutionality of the last assessment shall have been deter- 
mined, in order that the surplus tax may be returned. 

The Executive Committee made the following Report, which 
was accepted: 

The Executive Committee, to which was referred the Resolu- 
tion of Mr. Keitt, of Newberry, in reference to a petition by the 
Convention to the Congress of the United States, ask leave to be 
discharged from any further consideration thereof, the same sub- 
ject matter having already been referred by the Convention to a 
committee, raised for this purpose. 

Respectfully submitted. 

JAMES CHESNUT, Chairman. 

On motion the Convention adjourned to 4 o'clock, P. M. 



EVENING SESSION. 

Thursday, February 19, 1874. 
Tlie Committee on Immigration made the following amended 
report, which was unanimously adopted : 



45 

1. That tlie Committee have carefully considered the resolu- 
tions and papers touching white immigration into this State. 

2. That a Sub-Committee was appointed to confer with tlie 
State Grange, Patrons of Ilusbandr}^, but the Grange res])ect- 
fuUy declined, as the Patrons were constitutionally debarred 
from acting with any other body. 

8. That Mr. Frank Melchers, of Cliarleston, has introduced 
800 immigrants into the State, and that he lias orders for a large 
additional number; that he has in his possession |5,000, to be ex- 
pended in the introduction of additional immigrants; he has 
twenty agents in the Aarious towns and cities in Germany. 

4. That the Committee has examined Rev. Tilman R. Gaines, 
who says he has recently introduced 400 immigrants into the 
State. That he had an office in Canal street, New York, and 
that he has upon his books orders for over 300 more, and fur- 
ther that he could send 1000 per week if required. 

5. Tliat the main obstacles that have been met by those en- 
gaged in this praiseworthy work, has been to overcome the pre- 
judices that have been studiously infused into the minds of the 
immigrants in the Old World anctin this country, by the agents 
of the Northwest against the entire South, misrepresenting the 
spirit of our people towards the immigrants, the cheapness of our 
lands, the fertility of our soil, the health and mildness of our 
climate, the lines of steamships to New York, in conjunction 
w^ith the influence of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, and the 
inducements held out to them for the purchase of lands. 

6. That they can compete with them successfully by having a 
line between Charleston and Liverpool or Bremen. The i-ail- 
roads in the State should transport the immigrants at the lowest 
possible cost, for they will be paid in the future by the transpor- 
tation of the products of their labor. 

7. That our country, not being covered for nearly half the 
year by snow, and where the laborer is not compelled to spend 
in winter what he has made in summer, and when he can work 
in the open air from year to year, presents unusual advantages 
to the immigrant, where their prejudices are dispelled, and our 
real advantages are made known. 

8. The average value of the land in the North is |40 per acre, 
while in the South it is but $3.36; we grow all the cereals and 
make the short and long staple cotton and rice, and they are the 
best market crops in the world. 

9. The immigrants should be settled in the most healthy por- 
tion of the State ; that they should be treated w^th the greatest 
kindness and guarded from the practices of the sharj^ers; be pro- 
vided with good houses ; churches erected for them, and school- 
houses established for the education of their children. Tliey 



46 

have been accustomed to a different kind of a diet which we 
liave been accustomed to allow the negro laborer ; that a peck of 
meal and three pounds of bacon is not a suitable diet for them, 
and that would tend to disgust and dissatisfy them. 

10. That the advantages to accrue to us from the introduction 
of white immigrants can hardly be estimated should we give 
them every alternate section, which will more than quadruple 
the remainder in value. 

11. That the aggregate white vote of the State does not ex- 
ceed 56,000 ^:>ro rata; the honest colored vote would not exceed 
tliirty per cent, more, which would require us to overcome a ma- 
jority of about 18,000 at the ballot box. 

12. If we introduce 18,000 immigrants, who will have an in- 
terest in the development of the State, it would save the State 
from the ruinous expenditures wdiich are represented as its cur- 
rent expenses. For instance, the expenses of the State in 1865- 
'66 were |266,244.14, and in 1873, $1,717,318.60. Yet with this 
enormous expenditure there still exists deficiencies to the amount 
of $540,328. If the State was in the hands of honest officials 
these enormities would be corrected, and in a few years the 
present expenditures of the State would be reduced to the basis 
of 1865 and 1866. There are now ten Counties in the State Avith 
white majorities, and there are twelve others which, with the in- 
troduction of a few hundred immigrants, and a firm and united 
effort on the part of the white vote, might be added to them, 
which would give us such a representation in the General As- 
sembly as would place the control of taxation in the hands of 
honest officials. 

Tlie Committee, therefore, recommend the adoption of the fol- 
lowing Resolutions : 

Resolved^ That this Convention do at once organize a Bureau 
of Immigration, to consist of one Commissioner for the State at 
large and one Commissioner for each County in the State, to re- 
side at or near the County seat. 

Resolved^ That the said Commissioners of Immigration shall 
be elected by this Convention as soon after the adoption of these 
Resolutions as may be found convenient. 

Hesolved^ That it shall be the duty of the Commissioner of the 
State at large, in connection with such assistance and agencies as 
he may see fit to establish and appoint in the city of New York, 
or elsewhere, and by any other means which, in his judgment, 
may be best calculated to effect the object, to induce, promote 
and encourage white immigration to this State. He shall also, 
from time to time, as he may deem necessary, publish a state- 
ment of such advantages as this State offers in soil, climate, pro- 
ductions, social improvements, etc., to the industrious, honest. 



47 

frugal immigrants, no matter from what State or country lie 
comes. 

Eesolved, That the said Commissioner, assisted in the several 
Counties by tlie local Commissioners, shall be specially charged 
with the protection of immigrants, in the proper selection of 
their lands, in the procurement of transportation, in guarding 
them against fraud, chicanery and peculation, in their temporary 
location, in proper and reasonable places of board and lodging 
on their arrival, and in making all such regulations and provis- 
ions as may be in any manner necessary or conducive to their 
welfare. 

Resolved, That it shall be the duty of each County Commis- 
sioner of Immigration to call a meeting of the citizens of each 
County, who are in favor of white immigration, to be held at the 
Court "House of his County, on the first Monday in March, 
proximo, and lay before them the subject and importance of im- 
migration, and, if possible, effect a permanent organization to 
act in concert with, and as an auxiliary to, the Commissioner 
of the State at large, and to take such further steps as may be 
deemed necessary to promote the object in vicAv. 

Resolved, That it shall be the duty of the said County Com- 
missioners of Immigration to ascertain from the land owners of 
the County what lands are to be sold or given away, as the case 
may be, and if lor sale, on what terms; and to take down and 
procure for reference a brief description and location thereof, 
and report the same, from time to time, to the Commissioner for 
the State at large, so that when immigrants arrive in the County 
they may at once be provided for. It shall also be his duty to 
collect such contributions in money from the citizens for the pro- 
motion of the cause of immigration, as they may be willing to 
contribute, and forthwith turn the same over to the Commis- 
sioner for the State at large, taking his receipt for the same. 

Resolved, That the Commissioner for the State at large shall 
o-ive bond, with good security, in the sum of $5,000, conditional 
for the faithful discharge of the duties of his office, the bond to 
be approved by the President of the Convention, and made pay- 
able to him in trust for the benefit of all persons who may con- 
tribute any money under the preceding resolution. 

Resolved, That the Commissioner for the State at large shall 
have his actual printing expenses paid, and receive an annual 
salary of 11200. 

Col. C. H. Simonton submitted the following Report of the 
Committee on State and Municipal Taxation, which was unani- 
mously adopted: 



48 

The Committee on the causes of the increase of State and 
Municipal Taxation, and the mode and measure of relief there- 
for, to whom were referred sundry Resolutions, beg leave to 
report: 

The Committee, being composed of members from every County 
in the State, have had before them full and detailed statements 
as to the manner of assessing and enforcing the enormous taxes 
which our people liave been called upon to pay. Neither space 
nor time will permit the recital of the particular facts which have 
been brought to the attention of the Committee. 

In all of the Counties of tlie State the taxpayers are subject to 
the arbitrary regulation of the County Auditor and the Board of 
Equalization, governed, in nearly every instance, by one motive 
only — the raising of as much money as possible. In the majority 
of the Counties, through the action of the County Auditor or the 
Board of Equalization, under the influence, it is supposed, of the 
Comptroller-General, property, especially property in land, has 
been assessed at values far exceeding those ruling at any period 
in the history of tlie State. In some of the Counties, notably in 
the Counties of Marion, Chester, Union, and Newberry, the rate 
of taxation growing out of this assessment is really confiscation. 
These facts, and others of like character, are withhi the knowledge 
of every member of the C^onvention. They go to prove that the 
great cause of the enormous increase in the State and municipal 
taxation arises from the absence of any proper representation of 
the taxpayers in the General Assembly of the State. Tlie prac- 
tical operation of our institutions has placed all power in the 
hands of those who pay no taxes, and they have no interest in 
resisting extravagance and fraud. 

The immediate causes of this increase in taxation are to b(^ 
found in the law under which taxes are assessed and levied, and 
the ignorance, caprice, partiality, and fraud in which the law 
is administered. 

The tax law of the State is cumbrous, obscure, and intricate. 
In order to comprehend it, ability of no common order is required. 
Its execution with justice and impartiality is impossible. It is 
administered by appointees of the Executive of the State — men 
selected, most frequently, from party considerations, with no re- 
gard to qualifications for office, whose interests lie in the increase 
of taxation, who are in no sense responsible to the taxpayers, and 
who have no motive to protect these interests. The assessments 
are made without method, without discrimination between the pro- 
ductive and unproductive property, and in many cases without 
any knowledge of the property assessed, very frequently in secret; 
and the law seems to afford no other redress for fraud, mistake 
or partiality in the assessment, except the arbitrary will of the 
Comptroller-General. 



49 

l>ut, apart from and above this, tlie increase in tlie burden of 
taxation is owing directly and immediately to the extravagance, 
fraud and dishonesty which prevail to such an extent among the 
State and County officials. The wasteful expenditure of the 
public money by those highest in authority, the peculation open- 
ly practiced, the frauds perpetrated upon the State Treasury 
by so many of the State and County officers, the abuse of the 
authority of the Legislature, the jobs of the many rings which 
hang around the body politic, make such inroads upon the finances 
of the State that they cannot be met, exce])t by enormous tax- 
ation. All the available assets of the State have been disposed 
of and wasted. The credit of the State has been utterly ruined, 
and the ability of the taxpayers to pay is the only source whence 
the public plunderers can draw their ill-gotten gains. Corrupt- 
ion has so deeply tainted nearly all the departments of the gov- 
ernment, that those officers who would be honest find themselves 
powerless in resisting it. Extending through nearly every Coun- 
ty, supported by so many who draw from it their only resource, 
we readily recognize the chief and present cause of the evils 
which oppress the State, and which have brought the taxpayers 
of the State to the limit of endurance. 

The remedy, in the opinion of the C^ommittee, is within the 
reach of the taxpayers. 

The Committee have full confidence in the justice and in the 
ability of the General Government. They entertain the confi- 
dent expectation that the Memorial of this C'Onvention to the 
Congress of the United States, and through Congress to the na- 
tion, will open to us a way of deliverance. 

l>ut whilst the Committee feel great confidence in this opinion, 
they are also deeply impressed with the necessity for action on 
the part of the taxpayers themselves. Every effort to secure the 
restoration or the enforcement of their rights within the State, 
and through the machinery of the State Government should be 
exhausted. There must exist thorough organization, and active, 
untiring and disciplined effort. Vigilance, firmness, persever- 
ance, must characterize and control their conduct. 

The Committee respectfully recommend the adoption of the 
following Resolutions: 

Ixesolved, That in this State taxation has reached the last point 
of endurance, and that the taxpayers cannot continue to bear the 
excessive burdens imposed upon them. 

Resolved^ That the most efficient steps be taken for organ- 
izing, in every County, township, and precinct in the State, a 
Taxpayers' Union, to membership in which each taxpayer shall 
be eligible, the object of which shall be the reduction of taxation 
to the legitimate amount necessary for the administration of the 



50 

Government, and tlie honest expenditure of the money raised 
thereby. 

Resolved, That among its duties the Taxpayers' Union shall 
keep watch upon the acts of the State and County officers, and 
shall promote all proper legal measures for repressing and pun- 
ishing fraud, extravagance, and malpractice in any of them. 

Resolved, That this Convention hereby request the General 
Assembly that they will amend, simplify, and abridge the tax 
laws of the State; especially that they will so amend the law as 
to secure a fair and equal assessment of property, and to enable 
any citizen who has been over-assessed to apply to the Courts for 
redress before he is forced to pay the tax. 

Mr. Armistead Burt presented the following Memorial from 
the Committee on Memorial to Congress, which was unanimous- 
ly adopted: 

To the Senate and House of Representatives of the Congress of 
the United States : 

The Memorial of the Taxpayers and other Citizens of South 
Carolina respectfully sheweth: 

That upon the reconstruction of the State Government, and 
the admission of Senators and Representatives into the Congress 
of the United States, it was doubtless intended by Congress, as 
it was expected by them, that they would become partakers in 
the rights enjoyed by citizens of the United States, and of other 
State Governments. The history of the country teaches that 
taxation without representation is tyranny; our Revolutionary 
fathers combined to resist such tyranny; and we feel assured that 
it was never the intention of the sons of those men to allow this 
very system to be fastened upon any of their fellow-citizens. It 
has, nevertheless, come to pass that the Government established 
in South Carolina, under the legislation of Congress, has been 
made the instrument of effecting this monstrous oppression. 
That department of the State Government which exercises the 
taxing power is administered by those who own a mere fraction 
of the property of the State. Seven years have elapsed since the 
reconstruction of the State Government; and during that period, 
of the property taxed, a majority of the members of the Legisla- 
ture owned no part whatsoever, and the remaining members 
owned so little that their pay as members counterbalanced their 
entire interest as propertyholders. The result is that those own- 
ing the property have no voice in the Government, and those im- 
posing the taxes no share in the burden thereof. The taxes have 
advanced yearly, until, in many cases, they consume more than 



51 

one-lialf of the income from the property taxed. The annual ex- 
penses of tlie Government liave advanced from $400,000 before 
the war to $2,500,000 at tlie present time. The following com- 
parison of leading itetns of expenditure will l>est exhibit the 
change : 

1865-66. 1872-73. 

Salaries $ 76,481 63 $ 230,797 39 

Public Printing 17,446 66 331,945 66 

Legislative Expenses 51,337 00 291,339 47 

Public Asylums 25,897 00 128,432 11 

Contingent Fund 6,092 99 75,033 75 

Sundries 83,413 31 298,668 35 

$260,668 59 $1,356,216 73 

Deficiencies 540,328 00 



$260,668 59 



These facts exhibit the unprecedented spectacle of a State in 
which the Government is arrayed against property. It has been 
openly avowed by prominent members of the Legislature that 
the taxes should be increased to a point which will compel the 
sale of the great body of the land, and take it away from the 
former owners. The fruit of this policy is shown in the fact 
stated by the Comptroller-General in his official report, that for 
default in the payment of taxes for the year 1872 alone, 268,523 
acres of land were forfeited to the State. And this result proves 
the fallacy of the belief that the policy pursued promotes the 
elevation of the black population, and the acquisition by them of 
the lands thus virtually confiscated. The reverse is the neces- 
sary result. Lands are unavailable as security ; mortgagees, in 
default of payment, cannot sell ; wages have declined ; the cost 
of living is made greater by the addition of the taxes to the 
price of commodities; the poor are made poorer, and rendered 
every day more incapable of purchasing lands, and more hope- 
less of rising above the condition of mere laborers. It would 
have ameliorated the condition of your petitioners if the effect of 
this policy had been to create an active demand for lands on the 
part of this large class of our population. But while the owners 
are, by oppressive taxation, driven to sell, others for the same 
reason are disqualified from buying. 

The abuses in the Legislative Department, that have been de- 
scribed, are not confined to the mere raising and expenditure of 
revenue, but they pervade the entire conduct of that depart- 
ment. Schemes have been devised for issuing State bonds and 
for contracting other loans, by which the public debt has in six 



52 

years been raised from $5,000,000 to $16,000,000; and that with- 
out advancing any public work, or adding one dollar to the public 
property or to the payment of the public debt. Large as the 
sum of the public debt is admitted to be, there is reason to be- 
lieve this does not reach the true amount. It is found impossible 
to ascertain the actual sum of the obligations that have been issued. 
Schemes of public plunder have been openly advanced by cor- 
rupt measures, of which one single example will suffice. Two 
Clerks of the Legislature, in their official capacity, made con- 
tracts with themselves, as private persons, for the public print- 
in o-. The appropriations made in one year for the work done 
or to be done, by these two officials, amounted to $475,000, ex- 
clusive of $100,000 for publishing the laws. And in the hscal 
year 1873 there was actually paid to them for printing $331,000, 
leaving a large sum still due to them by the State. And this, 
notwithstanding the avowal of the two officials themselves, that 
the Avork done was worth no more than $100,000; and the testi- 
mony of others that its value was only $50,000. The stupendous 
fraud involved in this and similar modes of making the legiti- 
mate objects of public expenditure the medium of plundering 
the Treasury, cannot be better illustrated than by the following 
facts: The total appropriations for public printing, made by the 
Legislature of South Carolina, during a period of sixty years, from 
1800 to 1859, were $271,180. During the last year the amount 
actually expended for public printing by the present Legislature 
was $331,945. That is, $60,765 more than it cost the State for 
sixty years before the war. 

Committees have received large sums as compensation for re- 
porting favorably on private bills; and strong reasons exist for 
believing that a large amount of State Bank Bills, funded by the 
State to discharge her liability, have been re-issued by those en- 
trusted by the Legislature with the cancellation thereof. 

In the Judiciary Department, evils equally grievous have 
been produced. Under the present State Government the Judges 
hold their offices for short terms. Their continuance in office de- 
pends upon the caprice of the legislators. The result is, that 
the duties of their high office are discharged under influences 
and responsibilities necessarily adverse to the independent ad- 
ministration of justice. The jurors, moreover, are selected by 
three officials, of whom two are the appointees of the Governor. 
The consequence is, that the defeat of an obnoxious litigant can 
be made certain by the selection of the jury. Or if no special 
object be contemplated by these officials, the choice is frequently 
made of men who are unable to either read or write, simply to 
bestow upon them the patronage of their small pay. In either 
case, the ends of justice are defeated. 



53 

In the Executive Department, all these evils culminate. It is 
openly asserted and believed that offices are the subject of bar- 
ter; and the manner in which such offices are administered proves 
that qualification has little influence in the apj)ointments. In 
matters under the control of a single individual, it is difficult to 
prove corruption ; but there is one state of facts that always 
stands for proof. A large expenditure of money by an official, 
who is without any estate, and receives but a moderate salary, 
establishes beyond a doubt that the money must come from some 
irregular or illegal source. On this principle, the two Governors 
elected under the present Constitution stand condemned in public 
opinion. To detect and punish these crimes is impossible ; the Gov- 
ernor controls the avenues of justice. Indeed, the entire system 
is one of self-sustaining and self-protecting corruption. 

In most of the States, there might be some chance of redress 
through the ballot-box. But here, again, the State Government 
interposes an insuperable barrier. The elections are conducted 
by persons appointed in the interest of the officials, and the re- 
turns are under the absolute control of the parties in power. 
Under such circumstances, voting is a form and election a 
mockery. 

Suffering under such grievances, and despairing of relief from 
the State Government, your memorialists come respectfully to 
your honorable bodies for redress. The Government which thus 
oppresses us was virtually established by Congress; and while we 
believe they did not foresee the evils to which it has given rise, 
we cannot doubt that they will assist in removing them, so soon 
as they are satisfied of their existence. All that we have assert- 
ed is capable of proof; but knowing, as we do, that the evils of 
which we complain are certain in their existence, and are more 
likely to increase than diminish, your memorialists most earnest- 
ly ask your aid in providing the proper redress and relief. 

Mr. S. P. Hamilton, of Chester, introduced the following Ileso- 
lutions, which were adopted : 

Jiesolvcd, That the President of the Convention cause certified 
copies of the Report and fourth Resolution reported to the Con- 
vention by the Committee on Taxation to be transmitted to the 
President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Repre- 
sentatives, with the request that they present them to the bodies 
over which they preside. 

Jiesolved, That a Committee of three be appointed by the 
Chair to carry out the objects of the Resolution, and to ask of 
the General Assembly of South Carolina its speedy action on 
the Report. 



54 

The following gentlemen were appointed on said Committee : 
Messrs. S. P. Hamilton, B. P. Cliatlield and YW W. Walker. 

The Executive Committee rej^orted a substitute for Mr. 
Woodruff's resolutions, as follows : 

Resolved, That a Committee of live be appointed to represent 
the Taxpayers' Convention in presenting to the General Assem- 
bly such grievances arising from the operations of laws hereto- 
fore passed by that body, or growing out of an inadequate pro- 
tection for the minority by legislation not adapted to our real 
wants, and among other things to urge the accomplishment of 
the objects named below, to wit : 

1. To direct the attention of the General Assembly to the re- 
quirement of Section 3, Article 8, of the Constitution of this 
State, which declares that "it shall be the duty of the General 
Assembly to provide, from time to time, for the registration of 
all electors," which provision has been totally disregarded in the 
past. 

2. That proportional representation would tend to remove 
much of the dissatisfaction now existing, whereby complaint is 
most reasonably urged that a large proportion of property- 
holders and taxpayers of the State are practically debarred from 
representation in the General Assembly, and that the adoption 
of the cumulative system of voting would tend to secure a fair 
representation of the minority; and to this end invoke the Gen- 
eral Assembly to give an early and earnest consideration to this 
subject, with the view of applying this system in the conduct of 
the State elections next fall. 

3. That the provision of the Constitution, Section 21, Article 
4, in relation to the election of Justices of the Peace and Con- 
stables by the people should be complied with by the General 
Assembly, and that it should be urged to give the election of 
these officers to the qualified electors at the earliest day prac- 
ticable, instead of the appointment of Trial Justices by the 
Executive. 

The consideration of this report elicited a very animated 
discussion, which was participated in by Messrs. Woodruff', 
Screven, Moise, Gallucht'it, John Wallace, Chatfield, Chesnut and 
KershaAv. 

Pending the discussion, on motion of General Butler, tlie Con- 
vention adjourned to 10 o'clock to-morrow morning. 



55 
^lORNING SESSION. 

Friday, February 20, 1874. 

The Convention was called to order by the President at 10 
o'clock A. M. 

The Executive Committee reported as to tlie liOBolutions which 
liad been offered by Messrs. P. S. Felder and C. W. Dudley, that 
the subject matter had already been considered, and they there- 
fore begged to be discharged. 

Report adopted. 

Mr. Charles IT. Moise, of Sumter, introduced the following 
Resolutions, prefaced by appropriate remarks, on the life, char- 
acter, and services of the deceased, which were adopted unani- 
mously: 

liesolved, That in the death of Mr. W. H. McCaw the taxpayers 
of South Carolina have sustained the loss of a brilliant and fear- 
less champion, whose ready pen was always wielded in the cause 
of right and justice. 

Hesolved^ That, as a mark of respect to the memory of the de- 
ceased, this Convention will attend his funeral as a body. 

Hesolved^ That these resolutions be entered upon the Journal' 
of this Convention, and be published in the papers of this City. 

Col. Richard Lathers, of Charleston, introduced the following- 
Resolutions, which were adopted: 

Ilesolved^ That the Executive Committee, with the President, 
shall have it in charge to protect the interest represented by this 
Convention, in the interval of adjournment, to keep in' view the 
current legislation of the Legislature, and to call the Convention 
together at such time as they may deem expedient. 

Besolved^ That the President be authorized to fill vacancies in 
this Committee occasioned by resignation or otherwise, and add 
members to the Committee, if he think proper to do so. 

Mr. Maurice, of Williamsburg, introduced the following Reso- 
lution, with the statement that it was intended as an amend- 
ment to the Report of the Committee on Immigration, which 
was adopted yesterday: 

Resolved^ That the County Commissioners of Immigration, as 
provided for in the Resolution from the Committee on Immigra- 



56 

tioii, already adopted, shall be elected by the Delegation from 
each County, respectively. 

Adopted. 

Mr. Chesnut, of Kershaw, called for the Report of the Execu- 
tive Committee on the Resolutions of Mr. Woodruff, of Spartan- 
burg, which was under consideration at the hour of adjournment 
last evening. The substitute offered by the Committee was 
adopted. 

Mr. Chesnut, of Kershaw, called for the Report of the Execu- 
tive Committee on the Resolutions of Mr. Miles as to the inves- 
tio-ation of the condition and administration of the assets of the 
Bank of the State. 

The following is the Report of the Committee: 

The Executive Committee, to which was referred the Pre- 
amble and Resolutions of Mr. Miles, of Charleston, respectfully 
report, that they have considered the same, and recommend the 
adoption of the Resolutions, with the following amendment: 

To strike out the third Resolution, and insert in lieu thereof as 
follows: 

Besolmd, That the said Committee, before publishing their 
report in the official proceedings, submit the same for the sanc- 
tion of this Convention, or that of the Executive Committee of 
this body, if the Convention be not then in Session. 

JAMES CHESNUT, Chairman. 

The report was agreed to. 

The President appointed the following Committee under the 
Resolution: Mr. Ch. Richardson Miles, Hon. Armistead Burt, 
Col. Cadwallader Jones, (^en. Johnson Hagood, and Gen. John 
BrattoR. 

On motion, the Convention took a recess of one hour. 
Upon reassembling, the President read the following letter: 

"New York, Eebruary 13, 1874. 
"Dear Sir: The undersigned, bondholders of the State of 
South Carolina, desire, respectfully, to submit their cause to the 
consideration of the Taxpayers' Convention. Having bought 
our bonds at a time when no suspicion of fraud or corruption 
existed in the public mind, we respectfully protest against any 
idea of repudiation or reduction of our just claims being enter- 



57 

tainod by your honorable body. We bought your bonds in good 
faith, being induced to do so by public statements, made and 
signed by Governor Scott and Treasurer I^arker, the highest 
ofhcials in the State. At that time the credit of tlie State of 
South Carolina stood high even with the financial institutions of 
the North, and the subscribers know that three of tlie Savings 
Banks of New York bought a large amount of your bonds, and 
still hold the same. We are all working men, and not specula- 
tors by any means, and have already lost considerably by de- 
fault of three or four years' interest. 

Yours, etc., 

F. KORWAN, and others." 

In response to which. Col. F. W. McMaster offered the follow- 
ing Resolution: 

Resolved by this Convention, Than when the honest people of 
South Carolina control the Government they will do what is just, 
fair, and equitable among its creditors. 

Adopted. 

Hon. Jno. L. Manninu: offered the followincc Preamble and 
Resolution, which were unanimously adopted: 

Whereas, this Convention has, by resolutions this day passed, 
put upon record its sense of the loss the taxpayers of the State 
have sustained by the untimely death of the late Mr.W. H. McCaw; 
and whereas the welfare of the family of one who rendered in 
his life such inestimable services, is a solemn charge upon those 
for whom he battled so ably and so faithfully, be it 

Hesolcedy That each delegation in this Convention be, and is 
hereby constituted a Committee for the purpose of raising a fund 
to be presented to his family as a testimonial due to those 
services. 

The above resolutions were advocated by Messrs. F. W. Daw- 
son, F. W. McMaster, M. C. Butler and M. W. Gary, in feeling 
tributes of respect to the memory of the decased and earnest 
appeals in behalf of the living. 

The President announced the following gentlemen as the Com- 
mittee to present the Memorial of the Convention to the General 

Assembly of South Carolina : Messrs. J. A. Hoyt, F. AY. 
8 



58 

McMaster, J. H. Screven, A. B. Woodruff and D. S. Hen- 
derson. 

The President announced the following gentlemen as the 
Committee of fifteen to present the Memorial of the Taxpayers 
of South Carolina to the Congress of the United States : Messrs. 
Armistead Burt, M. C. Butler, B. H. Rutledge, James Chesnut, 
:\1. L. Bonham, W. H. Wallace, T. W. Woodward, B. C. Chat- 
tield, W. E. llolcombe, John L. Manning, C. 11. Simonton, J. G. 
Thompson, T. Y. Simons, J. B. Kershaw, J. II. Screven. 

Mr. Aldrich moved that the President communicate with tlie 
members of the Committee to convey the Memorial to Washing- 
ton, and that he have authority to fill all vacancies which may 
happen in said Committee. 

This resolution was adopted. 

Mr. Aldrich presented the report of the Committee on the 
Organization of Taxpayers' Unions, which was adopted, and is 
as follows : 

That they have considered the subject, and concluded that the 
most effectual mode of action is that suggested in the resolutions 
referred — that is to collect the proofs and conduct the prosecu- 
tions that will put on record the evidence of the frauds and 
spoliations which have made this Convention a necessity. It 
may be that under our present system it will be difficult to secure 
convictions, but at least the evidence will be put on record, and 
may be used to convince the Congress and the American people 
of the wrongs and outrages to which Ave are subjected. Hence 
the necessity of an earnest effort to make a case that will prove 
to the country how great are our wrongs, how perfect has been 
our endurance, how just is our appeal, and how necessary it is 
that Congress shall interfere to preserve the character and vindi- 
cate the civilization of the State and the Union. To do this, 
each man in the community must lend his aid. Public meetings 
and Conventions can do little more than direct public opinion 
and suggest modes of redress. If the necessit}^ which calls the 
Convention into being is not of sufiicient importance to arouse 
the people to a constant effort to carry out their recommenda- 
tions, either the evils are not so great as they are represented, 
or the people are not worthy of the efforts made in their 
behalf. 

Your Committee are fully convinced of the deep feeling which 
now stirs the public heart, and believe that it only requires judi- 
cious effort to keep alive and put in active operation all the ener- 



50 

gies of tlK3 tiixi)ayers and lionest citizens of ])oth races, and all 
parties, to relieve the State from the burdens and humiliations 
which threaten to destroy, not only lier prosperity, but her A-ery 
existence. This is not a question of party and race, but of State 
preservation, appealing to the pride and patriotism of every citi- 
zen, and in which all good men can work together. Nothing, 
however, can be effected without organization, and the mod*' 
suggested in the Resolutions appears to be the most sim))le and 
effective. 

The suggestion as to the formation of Tax Unions appears to 
your Committee to be the most efficient plan and is heartily 
recommended to the favorable consideration of all honest and 
A-irtuous citizens. We earnestly hope that all the citizens of the 
State, white and colored, without reference to party, who are 
willing to co-operate in this movement of reform, Avill join these 
Unions, and actively use their influence to restore an honest ad- 
ministration of the Government, and relieve the ])eople from the 
crushing burden of taxation under which they now groan. To 
do this requires earnest work, and each citizen must contribute 
to the necessary expense of effecting this much needed reforma- 
tion. It will take but a small per centage of the taxes annually 
collected and used by tlie corrupt Government that oppresses us 
to perpetuate their power, to carry out the purpose under con- 
sideration. If the taxpayers are really in earnest, tliey must not 
only be firm and active, but prompt and liberal, in furnishing 
the supplies. Prosecutions in the Courts cannot be conducted 
without money, and unless the means be supplied, the whole ob- 
ject of the organization will be a failure. 

Your Committee cannot undertake, at this time, to draft Con- 
stitutions and Rules for the efficient working of the Tax Unions, 
and have, therefore, committed that duty to a Sub-Committee, 
who will distribute the same when completed. The Committee 
recommend the adoption of the following Resolutions: 

Resolved, That the Executive Committee be empowered to 
])repare a system of organization of Tax Unions throughout the 
State, with authority to take all necessary steps for carrying the 
same into effect. 

Jlesolved, That the Delegations from the sevei'al Counties re])- 
resented in this Convention be constituted Committees for their 
respective Counties, and charged with the duty of organizing 
Tax Unions therein, in accordance with the plan to be ])romul- 
gated by the Executive Committee of this Convention; that the 
said Delegations have authority to fill any vacancies that may 
occur, and to elect Chairmen thereof, whose names shall be re- 
ported to the Executive Committee. 



60 

liesohed^ That the Executive Committee be authorized to 
coutinue its sessions after the adjournment of the Convention, 
until it shall have completed the organization and purposes con- 
templated in the foregoing Resolutions. 

Captain F. W. Dawson introduced the following Resolution, 
which was adopted: 

JResolved^ That the Committee appointed to address the Gen- 
eral Assembly, under the Resolutions reported by the Executive 
Committee, be instructed to report within thirty days, throue^h 
the public prints, the result of their eltbrts, especially upon tlie 
question of cumulative voting. 

Gen. Kershaw, from the Committee on Address to the People, 
submitted the following, which ^vas unanimously adopted: 

The Committee to prepare an Address to the People of the 
State, respectfally report the following Address to the People of 
South Carolina: 

Fellow- Citizens : The Representatives of tlie Taxpayers, to 
whom has been entrusted the high and solemn duty of recom- 
mending measures of protection against the corruption and rapa- 
city that rules the organized band of wicked and unscrupulous 
adventurers who, under the guise of government, and in the 
name of party, have persistently despoiled you of your property 
and outraged your most sacred rights, deem it becoming and 
proper to lay before you, in this form, certain considerations in 
connection with their action and deliberations, which they sup- 
]30se worthy of your earnest and thoughtful attention. 

It would be unnecessary and painful to recite your wrongs; 
the sense of these is not the least poignant of the sufferings you 
have been called to endure during these five years of unparal- 
leled outrage upon a refined and Christian people. We would 
have our words speak of courage, of hope, of patience, of faith, 
of work, and of duty. lie who has rightfully pondered the deal- 
ings of an all-wise and beneficent Providence with the affairs of 
men, cannot fail to have discovered an imvarying and inevitable 
social law, that all great wrongs tend to their own correction, 
and work out in the end a sure compensation for the ills they 
inflict. Thus the ebb and flow of human ideas, obeying the 
divinely implanted principle of perpetual gravitation towards 
the right, always returns from the widest deviation, and recoils 
most violently and with accelerated velocity from the greatest 



61 

errors. This truth has impressed itself upon the thoughts of the 
world with the force of Jiii axiom upon Avhich may be based the 
soundest propositions of the statesman. It has been aptly styled 
" the fanaticism of justice, which the stars, in their courses, sus- 
tain, and against which no attribute of the Almighty takes part." 
It is vain to suppose that the enlightened American people are ex- 
empt from the application of this universal social law. We feel 
justified in stating our conviction, that, breaking through all the 
" barriers of prejudice, political strife, and the resentments of in- 
ternecine war," the refiux of the great tide of opinion and sympa- 
thy is already moving with overwhelming force, bearing with it 
the promise of a restored nationality, based upon the broad and 
enduring principles of liberty, justice, and truth. We would not 
be understood as encouraging the thought that Avhat has been 
swept away in the past can ever be restored. This great coun- 
try has taken a new departure; has engrafted upon her system of 
government new principles, and deals with new elements. The 
returning sense of justice will find its task in the adjustment of 
these new factors of power into harmonious accord with the 
true principles of Republicanism, and in providing ample pro- 
tection for the rights and liberties of the people. It will proba- 
bly deal not with the organic laws, but with faithless, corrupt, 
and oppressive administrations. 

While we present these cheerful anticipations, which we feel 
justified in doing by many and great changes in sentiment and 
opinion, manifested among even the most extreme of the great 
political leaders and high ofiicials of the country, and still more 
in recent popular movements, it is intended to invite to earnest 
and hopeful effort and action, rather than to lull into a false 
security. No help can ever reach a people who suffer themselves 
to fall into apathy or despair. The energies of men seeking re- 
lief from wrong and oppression must be vitalized, organized, and 
united. Every accessible position of power must be seized, held, 
and utilized, and the fight carefully, vigilantly, and faithfully 
fought from place to place, until the citadel be won and the riglit 
restored. The Convention looks to your action as the most j^romi- 
neut and essential element of the success to be achieved. In or- 
der to procure a restoration of an honest administration of aflfairs 
the reins of government must pass into the hands of honest men. 
Hitherto, political issues have controlled all elections, and the 
great interests of the State have been subordinated to the schemes 
of corrupt and evil men, whose insatiate avarice and rapacity 
have brought us more of ruin and desolation, of wrongs and suf- 
ferings, than the fiercest ravages of war. The coming ideas will 
sweep away party lines and destroy the trade of hungry political 
adventurers. Government will be made once more the agent 



62 

of the people, not their master, and the great industrial inter- 
ests of the country, commerce and agriculture, become the prime 
objects of its protection, rather tlian its prey. To participate in 
tliese benefits, we must be placed in a condition to receive them. 
There must be an organization upon a basis wholly independent 
of political parties and issues, based upon the fundamental prin- 
ciple, that the rights and interests of the people require an hon- 
est, faithful, and economical administration of public affairs. 
Nothing but premeditated villainy, blind ignorance, or total de- 
pravity, can prevent this self-evident truth from controlling the 
oovernment. Our work is to meet and overcome every influence 
tliat would bar its recognition. Public opinion is created by 
agitation, and no community can long resist the pressure of a 
great truth, constantly, earnestly, and honestly urged. To do 
this, association is essential. The individual is as powerless as a 
single twig in the fagot, but nothing can resist the great power 
of combination. Let the honest and well meaning citizens, one 
by one, be brought into the Taxpayers' Union, and made to work 
for the cause of good government, until the State is redeemed. 
The eclat that attends the clash of arms is wanting to such a 
struggle, but no cause can be more worthy of the earnest, faith- 
ful, and patient labor of one who loves his people and his State. 
A triumph like this is not to be won by a single decisive battle, 
nor, it may be, by many toilsome campaigns, but patient, endur- 
ing, and honest work, sooner or later, will bring victory to your 
standards. No laurel wreaths may crown the victor's brow, but 
a ransomed and redeemed Carolina, a free, prosperous, and hap])y 
people, will attest to future generations that, worthy of your 
ancestry, and true as they to duty and honor, you nave taken up the 
fight in the darkest hour of adversity, and faithfully and success- 
fully fought it out to victory. We conjure you, then, at once to 
organize, compact, and work up the Taxpayers' Union, until you 
anclior the State safe in the harbor of assured peace and pros- 
perity. 

In connection with this great movement it is desired to appeal 
to our fellow-citizens, who, despairing of relief, are contemplating 
the thought of abandoning the homes of their childhood and the 
graves of their fathers, to seek, in other lands and among strang- 
ers, a more hopeful future. Stand by the old State. Desert 
not your people in their extremity. Leave not the field while 
the battle rages. Take new courage and try again. We believe 
this to be the very turning point in the fortunes of the State. 
Stay with us and share the coming good. The same energy, 
labor, and means that would suffice to establish the emigrant in 
a new home would rehabilitate the old in abundant blessings. 

It appears to us that duty and patriotism alike demand that 



63 

the citizen remain at his post, unless called away by more im- 
})ortant and exceptional considerations. Whenever it can he 
done, we urge upon the people to offer such aid and assistance to 
any citizen whose necessities may impel him to leave the State 
as may induce him to remain among us. To retain our old citi- 
zens is of more value than to introduce new. Every effort 
should be made to this end. Those who have left the State in 
these latter years of adversity and trial have not generally pros- 
pered. Many have returned to their old homes, poorer than 
they went out, and many, disappointed and ruined, look back in 
vain regret upon the fatal mistake. Let us remain at home and 
be buried in the tomb of our ancestors. A fertile soil, salubrious 
climate, valuable staples, mines and water powers, a kind and 
hospitable people, commercial facilities, railroads and telegraphs, 
and vast areas of unutilized and most valuable lands, cleared 
and ready for the plow, at prices greatly less than the cost of 
clearing the primitive forests, present here the most inviting 
held ever offered to the immigrant. Our people yearn for the 
coming stranger of every land and nation. AVe will introduce 
him on his arrival into the midst of an advanced Christian civili- 
zation, with an assured return for industry and thrift. 

This Convention has instituted certain modes by which your 
earnest desire to attract hither the people of America and Europe 
may most readily be gratified. From these and other agencies 
to be established, the happiest results may be expected. Let 
your hearty and liberal support of these schemes be constantly 
accorded, and South Carolina will soon achieve a career of pros- 
perity utterly unprecedented in her history. 

This Convention has not taken counsel from despair, nor 
lieeded that voice of the past that would awaken the passions 
and prejudices engendered amid the storm of contending issues 
buried on fields of blood, which stand as monuments of Ameri- 
can valor, devotion and faith. Whatever may have been the 
range of its discussions, its results are before you, evincing 
a spirit of self-restraint, forbearance, and conservatism, to the 
emulation of which they would earnestly commend you. They 
have left nothing undone that promised relief, or that any 
could say should have been done. While they have memorial- 
ized Congress on the subject of your Avrongs, in language of 
simple but burning eloquence and emphasis, they have not 
omitted a proper appeal to the State Government for necessary 
reform. In this they feel assured that they will stand justified 
by your approval and the enlightened opinion of the world. 
W"e shall not in detail attempt to recapitulate the entire action 
of this body, but earnestly invoke your attention to all the 
measures proposed, and a united action in their support, from 
the mountains to the sea. 



64 

In conclusion, imploring Almighty God to bestow upon all 
the people His best blessing, His wisdom to guide, and His 
gtrength to achieve, we commend you to this noble work oi' 
duty and patriotism. 

J. U. KERSHAW, Chairman, Kershaw. 
C. K. MILES, Charleston. 
JOHN BRATTON, Fairfield. 
JOHN S. RICHARDSON, Sumter. 
F. A. CONNER, Abbeville. 
IREDELL JONES, York. 
A. B. WOODRUFF, Spartanburg. 
J. GALLUCHAT, Clarendon. 

Mr. J. G. Thompson, Chairman, submitted the following re- 
})ort of the Committee appointed to wait upon Treasurer 
Cardozo : 

The Committee appointed under a Resolution to request the 
Hon. F. L. Cardozo for the vouchers under which he jiaid 
^831,000 for public printing in 1873, waited upon Mr. Cardozo, 
who had already prepared a reply to the request of the Conven- 
tion. The main portion of the reply consists of a personal at- 
tack upon the character of the Chairman of the Committee, in 
which the Convention is not interested, and which has no bear- 
ing upon the information which it desires. The attacked party 
is entirely able to take care of himself in this matter, and will 
doubtless do it. Your Committee, therefore, report that the 
only material matter of the reply is embraced in the following 
closing paragraph : 

"I have no right to permit any one to inspect my vouchers, 
except those who are legally authorized to do so." 

The Chairman requests the privilege of making a report, 
which shall be submitted to the Executive Committee; and that 
if thay so decide, it shall be incorporated in the published pro- 
ceedings of this body. 

On motion of General Bonham, the Convention went into 
Committee of the Whole, when a resolution was unanimously 
adopted, tendering the thanks of the Convention to Hon. W. 1). 
Porter, for the able and impartial manner in which he had pre- 
sided over its deliberations. The Committee rose, when Gen- 
eral Kershaw conveyed the resolution, in appropriate terms, to 
President Porter. 



65 

Hon. W. D. Porter said, in reply: 

Gentlemen of the Convention: I have again to express my 
tlianks for this cordial expression of your confidence, and I prize 
it the more because these assemblages are so rare now-a-days, 
and because there are now around me so many men mucli more 
worthy of such distinction — men whose lives are a record of 
lionor, whose acts are a part of our history, and wliose names are 
dear to our people as household words. As I have looked, day 
after day, for the last three days, into the upturned faces before 
rae, and have seen the flash of the eye and swelling of the bosom, 
and listened to the earnest, indignant, stern, and resolute words 
in which you have denounced our oppressions and our oppres- 
sors, I have realized, more clearly than ever before, not only how 
grievous have been our wrongs, but that here and now are pres- 
ent the spirit and determination to redress tliem. And why 
should it not be so ? Of whom are you the representatives ? 
AVhence do you derive your lineage ? AVhat history are you 
connected with ? There is a historic people in South Carolina, 
but our present rulers are not of them. [Applause.] The peo- 
])le of whom I speak are known to the world. Their fathers 
planted these Colonies, felled the forests, subdued the savage, 
erected school-houses and churches, and built cities and towns. 
They are the men who signed their names to the American De- 
claration of Independence, and with their own good swords, 
after seven long years of bloody war against the greatest known 
power on the face of the earth, made good that declaration be- 
fore the world, and consecrated this broad Continent to the name 
and purposes of freedom forever. [Great applause.] Those men 
taught their sons the lessons of liberty; they signed them with 
its sacred sign, and dipped them in its baptismal font. And 
shall you, their sons, the lineal descendants of such men, basely 
surrender the rights and privileges so transmitted to you? Oh, 
gentlemen ! if there is a spectacle, the very fullest of sadness and 
of that sort of pity which is only another name for contempt, it is 
the spectacle of a people who, born free, have lost the spirit of 
freedom, who have a past but no future, whose traditions are 
a reproach to them; who, having received from their fathers 
the heritage of liberty, have allowed themselves to pass under 
the yoke; and, helplessly, hopelessly, ignominiously transmitted 
to their children a heritage of servitude and dishonor. [Ap- 
plause.] I appeal to you, as men, as fathers, brothers, and 
sons, to devote yourselves to restore the liberties of the peo- 
ple who founded and made the State of South Carolina. If 
you do not, a curse will light upon your memories, and your 
children will be ashamed to acknowledge your names. In the 
9 



66 



earnestness which has characterized your deliberations, I see an 
omen and pledge of success. We are about to organize our own 
people under the inspiration of the sentiments to which I have 
referred. You need have no fears for them. They have vindi- 
cated their title to the name of freemen on many a well-fought 
battletield. It is for vou only to lead them in the right direc- 
tion. Do not allow them to run into hasty, impulsive, and rash 
action. There is relief in the future, as sure as there is a God in 
Heaven. As justice rules in Heaven and on earth, it must be, it 
will be, that this greatly abused people, who represent not merely 
themselves, but helpless women and unconscious children, will be 
able to work out their ultimate deliverance. 

The action of the Convention will speak for itself. I think its 
work will be approved by all honest and virtuous men. There 
may have been hasty utterances under the sting and goad of bitter 
wrongs; yet, in the results of the Convention, in its work, there is 
that moderation, that earnestness, and that prudence which will 
receive the approval of all good men. If we who have met, not to 
found the State, but to save it from disgrace and dishonor, shall 
succeed, our names Avill be honored by those who come after us; 
our children will rise up and bless us, and the whole country, of 
which our State is an integral part, will feel that we have ren- 
dered not only to ourselves, but to them, an inestimable bless- 



in a:. 



Again thanking vou for the expression of your confidence, I 
bid you all a God-speed and a safe return to your homes. 

Mr. J. S. Richardson, of Sumter, oft e red the following, which 

was unanimously adopted: 

• 
Resolved, That the thanks of this Convention are due, and are 
liereby tendered, to those members of this Convention who have 
performed a constant and faithful service to the interest which 
have called us together in the discharge of the duties assigned 
them as Secretaries of this Convention. 

On motion of Hon. T. Y. Simons, at 3 P. M., the Convention 
adjourned, subject to the call of the Executive Committee, 
through the President. 



67 

Chaklestox, lOth March, 18*74. 
7h the Hon. W. D. Porter, President Taxpayers' Convention: 

Dear Sre: The short interval between the adjournment of 
the Convention, and the publication of the official proceedings, 
lias not afforded time for the Committee appointed to investigate 
the. condition and administration of the assets of the Bank of 
the State, to complete the investigation and make a full report, 
for publication with the proceedings. 

By the Resolutions adopted by the Convention it is made the 
duty of the Committee, " to make such investigation as may be 
necessary to discover, and disclose whatever of corrupt practice, 
misconduct, or fraud, may have been committed in relation to 
these assets; and how and by whom committed, and to obtain and 
report all such information as will eivxble the Convention and the 
people of the State to know whether the said assets have been 
wasted, and by whose means, and who are responsible therefor;" 
and, also, to obtain and publish a full statement of the adminis- 
tration of the fund in Court. 

As the Committee have no right or authority to " send for ])er- 
sons and papers," nor to compel the attendance of witnesses, they 
can only perform the duty entrusted to them, by giving to all 
those who are in any manner interested in the subject to be in- 
vestigated by them, an opportunity to present such evidence as 
they may think pertinent and material. 

This the Committee propose to do, by giving due notice of the 
time and place at which they will assemble for the investigation, 
and invite all persons in any manner interested, to attend and 
submit such evidence and explanation as they may desire to bring- 
to the attention of the Committee. 

The evidence so procured, together with such other evidence 
and information as shall be afforded by the accounts, reports, and 
orders made in the cause in Court, and such reports as may be 
made to the Legislature, the Committee propose to collate, ar- 
range, and digest, and incorporate the result in a report. 

This report will, in accordance with the Resolution of the 
Convention, be submitted to that body, if in session, or, if not, to 
the Executive Committee; and the Committee ask, that when 
sanctioned by them, such report shall be printed as an Appendix 
to the official ^proceedings of the Convention. 

They also request that this letter be published with the offi- 
cial proceedings. 

Very respectfully, yours, 

CH. RICHARDSON MILES, 

Chairman. 



APPENDIX. 



The Speech of Col. Richaed Lathers, in the Convention, 
having been already published, certain gentlemen of Charles- 
ton, believing that its extensive circulation would be of advant- 
age to the cause, have requested that it be printed (without 
expense to the Convention), as an Appendix to the Official 
Proceedings. 



SOUTH CAROLINA — lIEll WRONGS AND THE 

REMEDY. 



IIEMAKKS OF COL. lUCHAKD LATHEKS, DELIVEKED AT THE OPEN- 
ING OF THE taxpayers' convention, in COLUMBIA, S. C, 
TUESDAY, FEBRUAFvY 17, 1874. 



J/r. Fresident — At the meeting of the first Congress of the 
United States, under our present Constitution, held in New 
York, 1789, a series of twelve amendments were proposed to the 
States, ten of which were subsequently adopted. Under the first 
of these amendments, therefore, which insures "the right of the 
people peaceably to assemble and to petition the Government for 
a redress of grievances," authorizes us, as American citizens, to 
convene for this purpose; and surely the most thoughtful of the 
statesmen of that time could not have anticipated a case more 
urgent than our own, or one so fully justifying an earnest appli- 
cation of the privilege. No people have ever l)een called upon 
to solve a political problem such as the people of this State have 
presented to them. A State Government, constituted of the 
highest degree of fraud, sustained by tlie greatest amount of 
ignorance, and these two factors of corruption and misrule kept 
in power by the whole force of a resistless partisan ascendency, 
in which tlie National Government itself, under a technical con- 
struction of its functions, is constrained to tolerate. 

People have been punished for their sins, political and moral, 
their liberties have been forfeited for fancied or real rebellion ; 
but no free people have ever, for any crime, been subjected to 
the absolute rule of dishonest strangers and the domination of 
their own slaves. No Commonwealth lias ever been so pros- 
trated as to elevate ignorant, unlettered slaves, without the least 
preparation, to perform the delicate duties and functions of law- 
makers, and the free and unrestricted use of the public purse, as 
the reward of dishonest adventurers. The future historian of 
this period will have to deal with a philosophy of history more 
original than that of Gibbon, and will search in vain over the 
annals of the world for a parallel. 



V2 

MEANS OF REDRESS. 

Everything which we may now propound to ourselves, look- 
ing to measures of relief from this terrible and seemingly reme- 
diless evil, will be received by the most hopeful with misgivings, 
and ought to be urged with modesty. And yet it is the duty of 
every good citizen not to despair of the republic, but to use 
every element of power which our intelligence shall suggest, to 
solve the problem in a peaceable manner, and, failing in that, 
make such new combinations, even outside of the domains of 
peace, as revolutions present to an oppressed people everywhere 
and at all times, limited only by tliat prudent regard for success 
in the justice of our cause, through the sympathy and support of 
our fellow-citizens of our own race, now so powerful as a nation, 
and who have not yet become so degraded as to wish the black 
man and his dishonest allies to overthrow the liberties of the 
Avhite men of their own blood and country. Judge Levi Wood- 
bury, of New Hampshire, while delivering an opinion in the 
Supreme Court of the U,iite(^ States, in the Rhode Island contro- 
versy, in 1842, in which he denied the jurisdiction of the Court 
in a mere political controversy, said : "It is asked what redress 
liave the people, if wronged in these matters, unless by resorting 
to tlie judiciary ? The answer is, they have the same as in all 
other political matters. In those they go to the ballot boxes, to 
tlie Legislature or Executive for redress of such grievances, as 
are within the jurisdiction of each, and for such as are not, to 
Conventions and amendments to the Constitution. And when 
the former fail, and these last are forbidden by statutes, all that 
is left in extreme cases, where the sufiering is intolerable and 
the prospect is good of relief by action of the people without 
forms of law, is to do as did Hampden and Washington, and 
venture action, without those forms, and abide the conse- 
quences." 

This grave opinion, under the sanction of the very seat of jus- 
tice, the Court of last resort in our country, plainly tells you that 
the right of revolution, when the ordinary instruments of Gov- 
ernment fail, is an inheritance and a remedy which oppressors 
must be taught to respect, and brave men to exercise. And the 
sooner that this remedy is contemplated, in case a more peaceful 
course fails, the better it will be for our adversaries. 

St. Domingo does not furnish so brilliant a record as to entitle 
the colored man to dominate over the Anglo-Saxon in this coun- 
try, and sooner or later thirty millions of white men will hold 
him to strict accountability for the use of the temporary power 
he now exercises here. As a friend to the colored men of this 
State, who fully concurs in their absolute rights of political 



73 

equality, and appreciate tliem for their genial and tViendly per- 
sonal qualities, I would caution them against the evil training, to 
which their leaders are tending, in fraud and misrule, Avhich, in 
time, will meet with a retribution, when their lace will iind itself 
in a minority, or when the white race, determining to submit no 
longer to sucli oppression towards any of their brethren. The 
colored race is on trial in this connection, and I trust and believe 
that, freed from the malign influence of the adventurers Avhich 
lead them, they v/ill escape the fearful examples of the race in St. 
Domingo, by avoiding the errors and oppressions which has kept 
that beautiful island in perpetual anarchy, and which now threat- 
ens our own community w^ith bankruptcy and ruin. Our North- 
ern brethren cannot escape the reflex effect of this degradation. 
These men are represented in Congress, and Congress is the law- 
making power for them, as well as for us. Their educated and 
honest representatives may be in part neutralized by the igno- 
rant and corrupt representatives which such a constituency may 
clioose to send to the National Legislature. What becomes of 
the dignity and conservative power of the Senate to protect the 
Nortli, when the South becomes the mart for the sale of Senator- 
ships to the highest bidder, without regard to local qualifications, 
ability, or honesty ? Pennsylvania already has virtually three 
Senators in that body by the exercise of its moneyed power in 
this State, and these influences will increase as the South be- 
comes impoverished and corrupted, 

TYKA.NXY OF A MAJORITY. 

De Tocqueville anticipated our case when he wrote, nearly half 
a century ago: " If the institutions of America are destroyed, 
that event may be attributed to the unlimited authority of the 
majority, which may, at some future time, urge the minority to 
desperation, and oblige them to have recourse to physical force. 
Anarchy will then be the result; but it will have been brought 
about by despotism." 

How would he have intensified these remarks could he have 
anticipated the existing state of our political relations. Our 
own Calhoun once wisely remarked: "That nations had rarely 
been disintegrated by civil war, but civil liberty had been often 
sacrificed thereby." But the evils which we suffer under are be- 
ginning to be appreciated at the North, and when a Yankee 
wakes up to an evil, and his sympathies are aroused, he permits 
no sophistry or abstract theory to stand in the way of a prompt 
and thorough reform in his own interest, and in the interest and 
vindication of his friends. I love that manly feature in their 
character, and it is mainly to this individual earnestness as much 
10 



74 

as to their intelligent industry and enterprise Ave are so largely 
indebted for national power and productive energy. After all, 
they love the South. However much as Union men they depre- 
cated the unhappy war which for a time produced mutual aliena- 
tion, yet they, with true American pride, feel that the South 
maintained its full measure of American gallantry in the field, 
and good faith after the gage of war was against it. The carpet- 
bag governments have long since been held in loathing by North- 
ern men in their own States, and by those living amongst us, as 
a vile slander on the section they represent. And the colored 
men, feeling the disgrace, begin freely to propose driving them 
from the State with their ill-gotten gain; but, bad as they are, 
the white native who joins them, to spoil his own oppressed 
people with corruption and fraud, merits a deeper execration. 
We have every encouragement in our present ?^o??-partisan move- 
ment for the co-operation of all parties, color and sections to rid 
ourselves of these plunderers. Hitherto they have screened 
themselves and their frauds behind their party lines, but now we 
deal w^ith them as thieves and plunderers^ not as partisans; their 
party affiliations will be no protection to their crimes, for every 
honest Republican, including the President of the United States, 
leading Senators and Congressmen, as well as leading Republi- 
cans of the North, freely denounce them as making their parti- 
sanshij:) a cloak for their crimes, and desire to see them pun- 
ished, as the best service to the l)arty, as well as a necessity for 
the safety of the best interests of the people. 

NOETHERX FEELIX(i. 

I have recently spent a couple of weeks at Washington, and 
after interviews with most of the leading men in and out of Con- 
gress there, and a large and varied correspondence with leading 
men of New England, I have found an unanimous sentiment of 
sympathy for South Carolina, and an earnest desire for the suc- 
cess of this Convention in procuring practical remedies as far as 
Congress can extend them, and the constantly-expressed hope 
that such prompt and efficient measures should be taken through- 
out the State, in the way of the prosecution of the crimes and 
such other persistent measures against the thieves as will bring 
them to punishment, and vindicate the power of honest men to 
deal with fraud when all parties shall concentrate for that pur- 
pose. 

A distinguished Republican (colored) member of Congress, 
from this State, impressed with these views, and the sympathy 
expressed in the National Capitol by the most influential of his 
own party, last night, at a public meeting in this city, plainly 



to 



told his friends that they must reform tlie abuses so universally 
execrated, or be cut oft' from the Republican ])arty as diseased 
and rotten branches, and that, unless reformed, their re])resentu- 
tives would be ashamed of them, and that Frelinghuysen, Dawes, 
Sumner, Butler, and every one of their friends outside of the 
State, who kept his eyes open, would hold tlie colored men re- 
sponsible, they being in the majority, and having voted the cor- 
rupt element into power. After eloquently deploring the frauds, 
and the necessity of reform in the interest of his race, as well ;is 
that of his party and country, he remarked: 

"Will you permit this state of things to continue? It cannot 
be hidden that there is something rotten in Denmark. There 
must be no promised reformation, but practical reform. If there 
be any one in the way of that reform he should be at once re- 
moved out of the path, and now is the time to do it. The na- 
tional Republican party to-day was ready to cut aloof upon 
the slightest provocation from the corruption now existing in 
the Soutli, and unless you do something, and that speedily, they 
will be compelled to cut off the rotten branches. He had warned 
them of this more than a year ago; this was no new thing. One 
thing he knew, that instead of being better it appears to 1)^' 
growing w^orse. The question of the Taxpayers' Convention is 
no sore-head movement. The people have a right to petition un- 
der the Constitution, and wdien it came it would come from his 
constituents, whether they voted for him or not, and he was 
bound to have it properly referred. 

"That petition will be considered; and do not allow your- 
selves to be misled about it. The only way you can prove that 
you sympathise with an honest administration of affairs is for 
you to give notice to those who have maladministered affairs to 
<|uit; for you to bring forward a new set of men. It is your 
duty to vindicate yourself, and prove to the world that you are 
in sympathy with those who want an honest government. He 
had no cause here to announce, or champion the cause of any 
])articular set. But it was his duty to point attention to erroi-s 
that have nearly resulted in the bankruptcy of the State. It was 
time that the hands that had caused these errors were stayed. 
It does not mean the ascendency of one particular set of men 
over another, but it means order and good government. Tlie 
opposite course would breed revolution and anarchy." 

None of these adventurers are dangerous as individuals, but 
it is in the aggregate they are destructive and resistless, because 
hitherto they have been supported by the power of the National 
Government. Burke, in his great impeachment speech against 
Warren Hastings, charging him with "letting loose a band of 
adventurers and robbers to humble and impoverish the Indias, 



76 



and for setting aside their original laws and usages, and the well 
settled rights of the natives of intelligence and property " — a 
case not without a suggestive parallel to our own — denouncinr^ 
Hastings for his outrages, he remarks: " He has devastated coun"- 
tries by the same means that plagues of his description have pro- 
duced similar desolation. We know that a swarm of locusts, 
although individually despicable, can render a country more 
desolate than Tamerlane. When God Almighty chose to humil- 
iate the pride and presumption of Pharaoh, and to bring him to 
shame, He did not effect His purpose with lions and tigers, but 
He sent lice, mice, frogs, and everything loathsome and con- 
temptible, to pollute and destroy the country;" and the recon- 
struction policy of the country has unfortunately (however well 
intended) produced a political plague of this character in our 
devoted State. The authority of the National Government is 
now as fully recognized in this State as was that of the Almighty 
by Pharaoh, when the plagues in Egypt were removed. May we 
not, therefore, petition the National Government with confidence 
for the same favor in the removal of these pests, or a mitigation 
of their political power in persecuting us ? 

IXTERESTS OF THE FREEDMEX. 

It has been urged in justification of the reconstruction policy 
tliat it was a measure designed to protect the newly acquired 
rights of the freedmen. But all parties now concede that the 
remedy is worse than the disease; that while freedmen's rights 
ought to be protected and secured, yet no code of political mor- 
als or economical wisdom will justify the sacrifice of the rights 
and property of free white men to effect it, and the overthrow, to 
a great extent, of the honesty of the freedman himself, by forcing 
him into positions of trust and power before his intellectual 
and moral training had fitted him for the discharge of the 
duties of statesmanship and to resist the corruptions of sud- 
denly acquired power. The evidence of this position is so pow- 
erfully and truthfully set forth in " The Prostrate State of South 
Carolina," under negro government, by a distinguished Abolition- 
ist, the Hon. James S. Pike, a former member of Congress from 
the State of Maine, and the late Minister to the Hague under the 
appointment of Mr. Lincoln, who visited this State, as the freed- 
man's friend, in February and March last, and saw with his own 
eyes the evils which he honestly relates, and which but con- 
firms the opinion of every Northern gentleman who has taken 
the pains to investigate the subject for himself. I would earn- 
estly recommend this book for its facts, which will not be dis- 
puted by any fair-minded man, who looks into the fearfully moral 



11 

trial of elevating ignorance and fraud over intelligence and hon- 
esty, and whicli tends to produce a prejudice against the whole 
colored race, because of their supposed responsibility for the dis- 
honest and ignorant leaders that now represent them in the State 
(Tovernraent. Mr. Pike says : " The rule of South Carolina should 
not be dignified with the name of government. It is the institu- 
tion of a huge system of brigandage. The men who have had it 
in control are the picked villains of the community. They are 
the highwaymen of the State. They are professed legislative 
robbers. They are men who have studied and practiced the art 
of legalized theft. They are in no sense different from, or better 
than, the men who fill the prisons and penitentiaries of the world. 
They are, in fact, precisely that class, only more daring and auda- 
cious. They pick your pockets by law. They rob the poor and 
the rich alike by law. They confiscate your estate by law. They 
do none of these things under the tyrant's plea of the public 
good or the public necessity. They do all simj^ly to enrich them- 
selves personally. Their sole base object is to gorge the individ- 
ual with public plunder. Having done it they turn around and 
buy immunity for their acts by sharing their gains with the igno- 
rant, pauperized, besotted crowd, who have chosen them to the 
stations they fill, and which enables them to rob and plunder." 

Mr. Chamberlain, a native of Massachusetts, a zealous Repub- 
lican, feeling humiliated by the corruptions of the State Govern- 
ment while he was our Attorney-General, in a published letter of 
great power and candor, in 1871, in which he admits that the 
reconstruction measures have produced glaring evils, writes : 
"Three years have passed, and the result is — what ? Incom- 
petency, dishonesty, corruptions in all its forms have 'advanced 
their miscreant fronts,' have put to flight the small remnant that 
opposed them, and now rules the party Avhich rules the State. 
* * * I can never be indifferent to anything which touches 
the fair fame of the great national party to which all my deep- 
est convictions attach me, and I repel the libel which the party 
bearing that name in this State is pouring upon us. I am a 
Republican by habit, by conviction, by association, but my 
Republicanism is not, I trust, composed solely of equal parts of 
ignorance and rapacity. Such is the plain statement of the 
present condition of the dominant party of our State." 

FKAUD FKOM THE BEGINNING. 

This Government of the State actually originated in a gross 
fraud. The Federal Government, in a spirit of charitable liber- 
ality, organized, through the Freedmen's Bureau, a charity for 
the aid of the colored people, whose destitute condition after the 



IS 

war, especially amoDg the women and cliilclren, and the aged of 
l)oth sexes, enlisted public sympathy. Food and clothing were 
to be distributed under the direction of General Howard, the 
head of the Bureau in Washington and in this State, by his as- 
sistant. General Scott, who soon after became the Governor, to 
the surprise of those not in the secrets of the party organized 
under the auspices of the Freedmen's Bureau. You will find, 
however, in the printed report. No. 121, of the second session of 
the forty-second Congress, this startling paragraph, as a part of 
the secret history of carpet-bag rule in this State, by which you 
will learn that this charity intended for the indigent colored 
men by the Federal Government was diverted as a corruption 
fund to initiate the fraudulent and corrupt Government which 
we now desire to be relieved of. The report referred to is from 
an investigating Congressional Committee into the alleged 
frauds of General Howard. "It was offered to be proved that 
in South Carolina the Assistant Commissioner, Scott, had been 
elected Governor of that State by the corrupt use of rations, 
provisions and transportation; that as an officer of the Bureau, 
and having the control of this property, he, by and with the 
knowledge and connivance of Howard, did use such property to 
the extent of three hundred thousand dollars for this purpose. 
The names of the witnesses were of high character, and members 
of the Republican party were handed to the Committee, and 
subpoenas asked for them, by whom it was stated by respectable 
persons these facts could be substantiated. The majority of the 
Committee refuse to allow them to be summoned." This Gov- 
ernment, conceived in fraud, has perpetuated itself in the same 
manner by such legislative and official measures and practices, 
in derogation of the plainest rights of the people, so that each 
species of fraud and corruption, which other commnnities have 
initiated in detail, have been aggregated here, and culminated 
in a grand repository of political expedients to crush out all 
opposition. 

Mr. Corbin, a native of New England, and the United States 
District Attorney for South Carolina, and a Republican Senator 
of the State, testifies before the Congressional Committee that 
the elective machinery of the State was as follows : "Three 
Commissioners were appointed by the Governor; those three 
Commissioners appointed Managers in the several precincts in the 
country, and were to furnish those Managers with ballot boxes, 
locked and sealed, except an aperture through which to drop 
the votes in the box. The Managers were to receive the votes 
on the day of election, keep a poll list, and return the poll list 
and the box to the Commissioners of Election, who were to 
count the votes ; they were to do that within three days after 



79 

the election ; they had three days within whicli they were to re- 
turn the boxes and poll lists, and the Commissioners were 
required Avithin ten days to canvass tlie vote and make a return 
to the State Board of Canvassers ; and the State Board was to 
canvass the result and declare it. 

* * * "You can see what the opportunities were. The 
Managers had the boxes at their precincts, remote from the 
county seat. * * * Some of them had to carry them thirty 
or forty miles to the County seat to deliver them to the Coni- 
missioners. If they chose to knock out the bottom and put in 
other votes, or to change those that were in there, they had the 
opportunity to do it. And after the boxes were received by tlie 
Commissioners, they had the same opportunity to commit frauds, 
because the boxes were in their custody for ten days. Some 
very glaring frauds were doubtlessly committed in some of the 
lower counties. At the very last term of the Court I convicted 
three parties in Beaufort County for abstracting ballots that had 
been cast by the voters at the election, and substituting others 
for them, and also for erasing the names of some of the candi- 
dates upon the ballots cast and substituting others therefor." 

Another witness before this Committee testifies that at a late 
election ''women gave votes for their husbands or their brothers, 
who they said were sick," and were not challenged, as most of 
the Commissioners and Managers were themselves candidates 
and all of the same party, except in some precincts, where as no 
one of the party could read and write, they had to resort to one 
of the Beform party for a Manager to make the record at such 
polls. And he further testifies that in an election referred to, 
the report gave "a round thousand against everybody on our 
ticket, and a thousand in favor of everybody on the other ticket. 
I do not think they ever counted the ballots." 

TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATIOX. 

These facts demonstrate the hopelessness of honest representa- 
tion to protect the rights of property, and demonstrate that the 
great maxim of the Republican Governments, which makes rep- 
resentation a condition of taxation, is here suspended. Let us 
contemplate the fruits of this departure from Reiniblican form of 
government. Judge Carpenter testifies before the Congressional 
Committee : 

"The property of South Carolina is assessed in round numbers 
at $180,000,000. I do not think it w^ould sell in any market for 
J|?100,000,000, for South Carolina has vast tracts of poor land. I 
think property is assessed there at about twice its value. 

" I will instance one case in Clarendon, when a tract of land 



80 

had been offered, two years, for $5,000, and they assessed it at 
f^ 15,000, and the owner could not get the Equalization Board to 
do anything about it. 

" Taxes seemed to be assessed with a view to the supposed 
necessities of the State per annum, rather than the value of the 
propert5^ Prior to the war the property of the State was about 
$480,000,000, against $180,000,000 now, and I think the taxes 
raised for State purposes before the war was about $400,000. 
* * * When I say that over $4,000,000 is levied 
this year for State taxes, I mean to say that they are trying to 
collect two years' taxes in one." 

While on this subject I will cite a case of great hardship, 
known to myself, as one of a large number: The plantation of an 
unfortunate planter was sold for debt last month. It brought 
but $700 at auction, and the taxes on the same being $250, left 
the creditor but $450, whilst the State assessed the property for 
taxation at $10,000. Is it any wonder that nearly a million of 
dollars of taxes is left unpaid every year, and the land virtually 
confiscated for taxes, leaving homeless many a family ? 

I quote freely from Judge Carpenter's testimony before the 
Congressional Committee, because he is a Republican, originally 
appointed by Chief Justice Chase as Registrar in Bankruptcy in 
Charleston, and has been twice elected by the Legislature as one 
of the Judges of the State, and is an ardent supporter of the 
National and State Governments: " Another cause of discontent 
(he testifies) was the character of persons appointed to fill offices 
under the Executive. The Constitution of South Carolina gives 
the Executive vast patronage, or at least the Legislature have 
assumed it, whether the Constitution gives it or not. All the 
County x\uditors. County Treasurers, Trial Justices, and most of 
the local officers, are appointed by the Governor. As a rule they 
are utterly incompetent, and as a rule they are utterly corrupt." 

He further testifies that the Governor had pardoned a large 
number of criminals just before his own second election. " I saw^ 
several persons that I had myself sentenced to the Penitentiary, 
who were pardoned just before the election. I met them on the 
streets, three or four of a very bad description of men — men who 
had been sentenced to the Penitentiary for a series of years. I 
think the official statement of pardons from October 1, 1869, to 
October 1, 1870, gives the number as two hundred and five out 
of some four hundred and eighty who were in the Penitentiary. 
I think the pardons were largely in excess of the convictions." 
And now, while on the subject of Executive interference witli 
public justice, I will relate cases of legislative interference as a 
sample of many which tend to overthrow the independence" of 
the Judiciary: 



81 

TlIK JUDICIARY. 

Last year, a case was tried in Charleston, involving a claim 
for damages against a railroad. The plaintiff's attorney took 
exception to the charge of the Judge and the finding of the jury, 
who, it appears, found a verdict for the defendant. This matter 
was taken up by the Legislature, because it was alleged he had 
made improper reflections on a colored woman of doubtful char- 
acter. The Judge was immediately telegraphed for, to appear 
before the Legislature at Columbia, his Court closed in the mean- 
time, and he only escaped impeachment by the lawyer explain- 
ing that the member to whom he had complained had given more 
force to his language than he had intended. 

The Committee reported fully on the case, acquitting the 
Judge of any improper action; and the Supreme Court, to which 
an appeal was made, took no exception to his rulings. The 
lawyer admitted that he did not think the woman had suffered 
by his remarks. The Committee closed their report as folloAvs: 
'' In conclusion, your Committee would remark that the enacting 
of this farce, expensive though it be, will not fail of producing 
good results, if for the future it shall stand as a beacon light to 
warn the House of Representatives against any investigation 
into rulings of Judges or the verdict of juries. These matters of 
right belong to the Circuit and Supreme Courts, and we may not 
touch them without infringing upon the independence of the 
Judicial Department, and weaken public confidence in the ad- 
ministration." 

This report saved the Judge, and he was able to reopen his 
Court again. But, of course, his tenure of office, he will feel, 
liangs on the pleasure of the Legislature, and his decisions must 
be measurably affected thereby. 

A few weeks ago, in Camden, a colored man was proved guilty 
of larceny by three respectable witnesses of his own color; no re- 
butting testimony, but that of tlie prisoner himself, who denied 
the charge. The jury of colored men acquitted him, but as none 
of them could write, the verdict was signed by the foreman {in- 
them, by making his mark. After the verdict had been signed, 
some of the jurors declared it was not their decision, and dis- 
l)layed so much ignorance of their duties, that the Judge Avas 
constrained to discharge them as incompetent to try another case. 
A Resolution was immediately introduced into the Legislature 
for impeaching the Judge, the latter portion of which embodies 
the alleged offence: " Now, therefore, be it resolved, that the 
said R. B. Carpenter be impeached for conduct unbecoming :i 
Judge, and for denying to citizens of this State, on account of 
color, the right to serve as jurors in and for the County of Ker- 
11 



82 

8haw." The Judge's friends, however, were able to save him 
from impeachment by a small majority. Yet he is so popular 
among them as to have been twice elected to the Bench by the. 
Legislature: but, of course, he now has notice that ignorant col- 
ored juries must not be discharged in future. There seems to be 
a constant struggle for power here, and it has lately developed a 
new phase of a\;langerous States rights character. A Bank be- 
came insolvent lately, and measures were taken by some ot the 
creditors in one of the State Courts to deal with its assets. 
Other creditors and the oflicers of the Bank ])referred to go into 
Voluntary Bankruptcy in the United States Court, and place the 
assets of* the Bank under that jurisdiction, by the direction of 
the District Judge of the Federal Court. This brought about a 
controversy as to the jurisdiction under an appeal from the decis- 
ion of the local United States Judge, which decision was fully 
sustained by the Federal Circuit Judge, it being determined that 
the State Courts had no power in such cases. The Judge ot the 
State Court, however, does not concur in this questioning of h\i> 
[lower in the premises, but has ruled the lawyers of the opposi- 
tion for contempt of Court in advising their clients to seek jus- 
tice in a United States Court, and actually debars some of them 
from practicing their profession in the State Courts. This per- 
sonal injustice acts as a menace to the whole bar, so that those 
of us who have no confidence in the State Courts, while sub- 
jected to the interference of the Legislature, are practically 
denied the right to appeal to a more reliable Court, by the inter- 
ference of the State Judges. 

PHINTlN<r FUAUDS. 

If time permitted 1 could greatly enlarge on this class of evils 
from authentic sources. The Courts are not only intimidated, 
but the press is subsidized. Mr. Pike informs us that "the State 
Government employs and pays them ad libitum. An instalment 
of |;75,000 lately went to about twenty-five papers, in sums ran- 
ging from lioob to $7000 a piece, a list of which was published 
l)y order of a vote of the Legislature a short time ago. Of course 
none of the deviltry of the State government is likely to be ex- 
posed through them. The Avhole amount of the printing bills of 
the State last year as computed (for everything here has to be in 
part guess work) aggregated the immense sum of $600,000." I 
1 hink^his estimate is too large, but I believe it is now knowni to 
have exceeded $575,000— a sum which would have more than 
disbursed the whole expenses of the State before the war, and 
larger than the aggregate printing bills of Iowa, Massachusetts, 
Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Maryland. These States, containing an 



S3 



aggregate population of over ten inilliouH, and a capital tliirtv 
times larger than tliat of this State, a reading people, and vH. 
their public pi-inting only amounts to the aggregate yearly sumj 
of $385,000. This enormous fraud enun^s to the benefit of aprinl- 
ing ring in Columbia, represented by the Clerk of the House and 
the Clerk of the Senate, who enjoy the mono|)oly and divide the 
))roceeds with leading members of the (Tovernment and the Lcl^- 
islature. T am furnished by a prominent and useful member of 
the Legislature the following synopsis from the report of the 
Joint Special Investigating Committee, in their statement of 
grand totals of cash expenditures for public printing in the fol- 
lowing years, by which it will be seen that this fraud progressevS 
in a yearly ratio so startling as to render it difficult to conceive 
hoAV such public robberies were tolerated without producing that 
degree ot public indignation which would have overleaped law 
abiding propriety in a tar-prod-ucing country, and where feathers 
are not beyond tiie impoverished purses of the victims, who have 
exhibited a patience and a meekness worthy of Job and of 
Moses. Five hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars were 
actually paid last year for public printing, whereas the first two 
years' expenditure for that purpose, after the reconstruction of 
the State, in honest hands, w'as but $43,000, or less than $22,000 
per annum, and when the aggregate expenditure of sixty years 
before the wnr for printing did not reach $400,000 : 



PUBIjr PRIM'IX<^ 



September, 1808, to October 31, 1870 $ 43,440 '/I 

October, 18*70, to October, 1871 134,151 44 

October, 1871, to October, 1872 215,129 8H 

October, 1872, to October, 1873 331,945 00 

Undraw^n appropriation, 1873 11 8,054 34 

Extra session appropriation, 1 873 125,000 0() 



$967,721 87 
Deduct first two years — 1868 to 1 870 43,440 57 



? 



Cost of three years printing $924,281 30 

From October 31, 1872, to November 19, 1873, the date of 
the Act authorizing the issue of certificates to the "Republican 
Printing Company," certificates of indebtedness receivable for 
taxes were actually ^^ri/r? for public printing to that company to 
the enormous amount of $575,000, whereas the total revenues of 
the State the same fiscal year, according to the State Treasurer's 
report, was but $1,719,72*8. 



SWOLLEN EXPENSES. 

The result of all these frauds first produce over issues of Bonds 
and then a repudiation of them. Credit failing, the resort is to 
taxation, or rather to confiscation of the piivate property of the 
people. I should like to give you a full comparison of the ex- 
])enditures before and after the war, and even year by year the 
comparison is instructive, as the figures steadily rise with each 
new administration, but time will only permit a mere synopsis 
of the more prominent : 

Taxable property of the State before the war $490,000,000 

Taxable property now 1 '70,000,000 

Tax levies before the war, not over , 500,000 

Tax levied this year 2,700,000 

Legislative expenses before the war 40,000 

Legislative expenses this .year 291,000 

Public printing before the war 5,000 

Public ])rinting this year, at least 450,000 

Legislative expenses reached the enormous sum one year of 
over half a million. I understand some four hundred employees 
were paid as clerks, and other assistants to the members, being 
more than two apiece ; some of the clerks signed the receipt for 
their salaries by their mark as they could not write, and one was 
paid for such "^services who had not been in the State in two 
years. 

We shall have but limited reforms till the people are edu- 
cated. Tlie ignorance of black or white men is productive of 
the same evilst In Massachusetts ninety-three per cent, of the 
])eople, over ten years old, read and write, and but seven out of 
every hundred are ignorant below this standard. Yet eighty 
per cent, of the criminals come from this ignorant class, and 
only twenty per cent, from those who can read and write. New 
York and Pennsylvania stands seven to one, and the United 
States stands ten to one in this relation. I have very grave fears 
that unless active measures are taken to educate the rising gen- 
(^ration of the colored race, and induce them to train their 
children to habits of industry, that they wdll degenerate as they 
have in St. Domingo and become a set of mere camp-followers 
of political leaders, or degenerate into pauperism. 

While they were slaves they had the care of masters whose 
interest it was to enforce habits of industry, and subject them to 
some degree of moral discipline. Let me invoke the intelligent 
men of the colored race to consider the necessity of an active re- 
form in this matter if they would elevate their people, or indeed 



85 

stay their decadence as men, by making them less the instru- 
ments of politicians and more devoted to their own true ele- 
vation. 

OUIl POLK Y IX THE FUTURE. 

Much of the evils which afttict our Commonwealth are no 
doubt chargeable to an ill-judged and, perhaps, a partisan policy 
on the part of Congress, more or less dictated by an honest be- 
lief that those radical changes in the laws and usages of the 
State were necessary for the protection of colored men's rights 
against the prejudices of their former masters. Hard as were 
the conditions which reversed the order of the community by 
elevating ignorance to places of power, and ignoring the claims 
ot intelligence and property to protection and representation, yet 
these evils have become intensified and perpetuated by the neg- 
lect or refusal of the community to accept the condition, and 
utilize what little inlluence and power for restraining this igno- 
rance and corruption by a ready co-operation with the many hon- 
est and intelligent men of both parties and both races, who have 
always desired to reform their party. Xow, however, a dawn- 
ing of good feeling on the part of even the most extreme Eadi- 
cals, in and out of the State, and an open and pronounced sym- 
pathy against fraud and corruption, cheers us on to do something 
ourselves, and to show ourselves grateful for this sympathy, as 
well as willing to help ourselves out of the difficulty. We should 
ignore party lines, color, or place of birth, and co-operate heartily 
with any man, and any race, and any party whose mission is 
honesty, and we should do it so heartily as to leave no doubt in 
the minds of any one. Past issues should not only be forgotten, 
but even the short-comings of individuals should be condoned in 
the public mind towards those who will now heartily join us to 
purge the State. When one contemplates the frailties of our 
own race, and the many weaknesses which attach themselves to 
the best of our public men — when we further, Mr. President, 
look into our own hearts, and the hidden motives, and even self- 
ish actions of our own lives, we must rejoice that we are not ex- 
posed, and we should be ready to forgive much that we know of 
others. Many a good man has fallen beyond redemption because 
of the lelentlessness of the public towards one unfortunate politi- 
cal or social error, and many a good man, by reason of a single 
frailty or act of disloyalty to his party, has been driven into open 
and extreme hostility by an undue and indiscriminating abuse. 
Ijet us, therefore, forget the bad measures of the past, except as 
lessons to be avoided in future, and the bad actions of men, 
except as beacon lights to be guarded against: and while we 



should always honor and repose unqualified confidence in men 
Avhose probity and judgment have never deceived us, yet politics 
is a web of mixed materials, and in the weaving we must not be 
too exclusive in our selection of the yarn, nor unwilling to use 
the loom because partly constituted of doubtful metal. Let us, 
therefore, with confidence memorialize the Congress of our great 
nation to afford us such relief as American citizens have a right to 
ask for. We have a constitutional right to a Republican form 
of government, and now it is admitted by every class and every 
party tliroughout our common land, that the rights of ])ro])erty 
are entirely ignored, and that there is no machinery within the 
State powerful enough to resist the frauds and corruptions which 
impoverisli and humiliate us. It would, therefore, be absurd to 
say that we enjoyed that — that form of a Republican government 
contemplated by the Federal Constitution. Julius Copsar over- 
tlirew the liberties of the people of Rome in ancient times, and 
Louis Napoleon suppressed those of France in modern times, 
while conforming in the most explicit manner to tlie /'onns of 
the republic; but no publicists, economists, jurists, or historians 
have ever classified tliese nations as republics, after the overthrow 
of the rights of these people, because the fo7'77is were maintained. 

(^OlVSTITUTIOXAL GUA R A NTEE8. 

We are guaranteed by the fourth article of o'lr National Con- 
stitution a Republican form of government. This means the 
substance, not the form only. The form must be the emanation 
from the substance, as the shadow follows the body. The earn- 
est and astute body of statesmen wlio created a Republican form 
of government, and who designed that glorious instrument for 
the security of themselves and their posterity, disregarded forms 
when they counselled a separation from the mother country on 
the ground that, to freemen, taxation without representation was 
a form without substance, however much doctrinarians of that 
nge might show up the beauty of the British Constitution. And 
Avhen we contemplate that taxation without representation was 
the sole cause of our separation from the crown of Great Britain, 
are we not invariably brought to the conclusion that that right 
of representation as a condition precedent to taxation was the 
very corner-stone of that Republican edifice guaranteed to eacli 
State of the new confederate nation which Washington, Jefferson, 
Adams, and Rutledge intended to secure to us ? 

In this State, apart from the admitted frauds and corruptions, 
of which the party in power furnish the proofs themselves, that 
1 have laid before you in their own words, demonstrating to 
ever}^ mind that taxation without representation is the principal 



87 

cause which deprives us uf the practical rights of Kepublicans, 
and, indeed, of the simplest and universally conceded rights of 
any people. 

Suppose every State in the Union had such a form and prac- 
tice of government, and the same ])rinciple of action should ex- 
lend itself (as it surely would) to the Federal Government, how 
long would the Constitution continue to guarantee a Republican 
form to itself ? l^ut we have the testimony of the Avise Iramers 
and commentators on the Constitution itself on tliis subject. ]\Ir. 
Hamilton, in his No. 51 of the Federalist, while defending the 
Constitution, to insure its adoption by the States, writes as fol- 
lows: 

'' It is of great importance in a Republic not only to guard 
society against the oppression of rulers, but to guard one i>art of 
society against the injustice of the other part. Justice is the end 
of government; it is the end of civil society: it ever has been, 
;ind ever will be pursued until it be obtained, or until liberty be 
lost in the pursuit. In a society under the lorms of which the 
stronger factions can readily unite and oppress the weaker, an- 
archy may as truly be said to reign as in a state of nature, when 
the weaker individual is not secured against tlie violence of the 
stronger." 

Is not this tlie acknowledged condition of tliis community l>y 
the evidence I have already adduced from leading and ofiicial 
men who direct its affairs at present ? 

THE FATHERS OF THE KEI'UnLlC. 

Jefferson, in a letter to Madison, says: " The Executive jiower 
in our Government is not the only, perhaps, not even the ])rinci- 
pal object of my solicitude. The tyranny of the Legislature is 
really the danger most to be feared." 

And, of course, a tyrannical Legislature is one of the elements 
which the power of the Federal Government was intended to 
guard against under tlie guarantee of the Fourth Article of the 
C'onstitution. Madison remarked, in the Convention: "An in- 
crease of population will, of necessity, increase the proportion of 
tliose who will labor under all the hardships of life and secretly 
sigh for a more equal distribution of its blessings. These may 
in time outnumber those who are placed above feelings of indi- 
irence. According to the equal laws of suffrage, the power will 
slide into the hands of the former: no agrarian attempts have yet 
been made in this country, but symptoms of a levelling spirit, as 
we have understood, have sufficiently appeared in a certain quar- 
ter to give notice of the future danger. How is this danger to 
be gua'rded against on Republican principles ? How is the dan- 



88 

ger in all cases of interested coalitions to oppress the minority 
to be guarded against ?" The guaranty clause of the Federal 
Constitution answers the question, and it has been reserved to 
the present time to justify the wisdom of that provision. Mr. 
Gerry, in his reply to this, s'lid: "He did not deny the position 
of Mr. Madison, that the majority will generally violate justice 
where they have an interest in doing so, but did not think there 
was any such temptation in this country." But Mr. Gerry could 
not anticipate the possibility of a Government in the hands of a 
set of dishonest adventurers, supported by an overwhelming 
number of emancipated slaves, perfectly resistless in point ol' 
numbers, ignorant of their own interest, as they are reckless of 
the rights, of the property, and the persons they supersede. 
AVith a few favorable exceptions, the intelligent and honest col- 
ored men are wholly disregarded, and without influence, and 
their eflbrts for reform, or even to educate and elevate their race, 
to lit them for the sacred duties of American citizens, meets with 
no favorable response, and, therefore, renders reform nearly hoi)c- 
less, without the sympathy and co-operation of our fellow-citi- 
zens outside of the State, and through the National Government 
in the protection of the rights of the minority. 

Montesquieu, and other distinguished publicists, had suggest- 
ed the importance of Federative Republics as a practical means 
of extending the sphere of popular governments with safety to 
the permanency of the Republican principle in even great na- 
tions, because not only were these smaller members of the Con- 
federacy protected against foreign conquest and domestic vio- 
lence, but should abuses crop out into one part, they are reformed 
l)y those that remain sound; and the section of the Constitution 
under discussion, which guarantees to every State a Re})ublican 
form of Government, is the looical conclusion of the above 
]>reraises. The evils to be thus guarded against, then only 
"cropping " out to the imagination of these writers, are now de- 
veloped here in full into exaggerated maturity and Iruitfulness, 
and hence we petition to the sound portion of our Confederacy to 
grant us the remedies referred to. 

Mr. Madison, the greatest authority on our form of Govern- 
ment, again remarks: "It will be found, indeed, on a candid re- 
view of our situation, that some of the distresses under which we 
labor have been erroneously charged on the operations of our 
Government, but it will be found, at the same time, that other 
causes will alone account for many of our heaviest misfortunes, 
and particularly for that prevailing and increasing distrust of 
public engagements and alarm for private rights, which are 
echoed from one end of the Continent to the other. These must 
be chiefly, if not wholly, eflects of the unsteadiness and injustice 



89 

witli which a factious spirit has tainted our public administra- 
tions. By a faction, I understand a number of citizens, whether 
amounting to a majority or a minority." >\fter discussing the. 
(hmgers to the equality of interests and the public weal, arising 
from the predominance of powerful factions, who become masters 
of the situation, he further remarks: 

" But the most common and durable source of faction has 
been the various and unequal distribution of property, those who 
hold, and those who are without property. * * * The ap])or- 
tionment of taxes on the various descriptions of })roperty is an act 
wliich seems to require the most exact impartiality, yet there is 
perhaps no Legislative Act in which greater opportnnity and 
temptation are given to a predominant party to trample on the 
rules of justice. Every sliilling with which they overburden the 
inferior number is a shilling saved to their pockets. * * * 
To secure the public good and private rights against the danger 
of such a faction, and at the same time preserve the spirit an<l 
form of popular government, is then the gi-eat object to which 
our inquiries are directed. Let me add that it is the great de- 
sideratum l>y which alone this form of (Tovernment can be 
rescued from the opprol)rium under which it has so long labor- 
ed." Here, again, you perceive how pointedly his arguments 
tend to show the necessity of the Federal guaranty to each 
State. 

Hamilton, on the same subject, says: "Without a guarantee, 
the assistance to be derived from the Union, in re})eiring those 
domestic dangers which may sometimes threaten the existence of 
the State Constitutions, must be renounced. Usurpation may 
rear its crest in each State, and trample upon the liberties of the 
people, while the National Government could legally do nothing 
more than behold its encroachments with indignation and re- 
gret. * * * The inordinate pride of State import- 
ance has suggested to some minds an objection to the princi pb- 
(»f a guaranty in the P'ederal Government, as involving an oHi- 
cious interference in the domestic concerns of the members. A 
scruple of this kind would deprive us of one of the principal ad- 
vantages to be expected from the L'nion, and can only flow from 
a misapprehension of the nature of the provision itself. It could 
be no impediment to reforms of the State Constitution by a ma- 
jority of the people. In a legal and peaceable mode this right 
would remain undimiriished. A guarantee by the national 
authority would be as much directed against the usurpation of 
rulers as against the ferments and outrages of faction and sedi- 
tion in the community." 

Calhoun, too, the most advanced advocate of Constitutional 
State Rights, held that tlie guarantee clause under discussion 
12 



90 

was intended to be more a correctionary measure against the 
usurpation or misrule of State Governments, than for protection 
n<yainst domestic violence. And I would here remark that the 
Conservative views of that great statesman, who valued the 
Union next to the Constitution, and regarded them as necessary 
to the existence of each other, have been too often misappre- 
liended, and too often misrepresented, by opposite classes of 
politicians, who, citing to what they believed to be the logical 
consequences of his opinions rather than those of his exemplitied 
views and avowed principles. In discussing the fourth article ol 
the Constitution, he writes as follows : 

"I come now," he says, "to the last, in the order in which I 
am considering them ; but the first as they stand in the section, 
and the one immediately involved in the question under consid- 
eration — I mean the guarantee of a Republican form of Govern- 
ment to every State in the Union. 

"I hold that, according to its true construction, its object is the 
KEVEiisE of that of protection against domestic violence; and 
that instead of being intended to protect the Governments of the 
States it is intended to protect each State (I use the term as de- 
fined) against its Government, or, more strictly, against the 
ambition or usurpation of its rulers. That the objects of the 
Constitution to which the guarantees refer — and liberty more 
especially — may be endangered or destroyed by rulers, Avill not 
be denied. But, if admitted, it follows as a consequence, that it 
must be embraced in the guarantees, if not inconsistent with the 
language of the section. But if embraced, it must be in the guar- 
antee under consideration, as it is not in the other two. If it be 
added that, without this construction, the guarantees would 
utterly fail to protect the States against the attempts of ambition 
and lisurpation on the ])art of rulers, to change the forms of 
their Governments and destroy their liberty — tlie danger above 
all others to which free and popular Governments are most ex- 
posed — it Avould seem to follow irresistibly, under the rule I 
have laid down, that the construction I have placed upon the 
]>rovisions as to tlie object of the guarantees is the true one. 
But if doubts should still remain, the fact that it fully explains 
why the provision requires the application of the State in case 
of the guarantee against domestic violence, is omitted, would 
])lace it beyond controversy; for it would be a perfect absurdity 
to require that the party against which the guarantee is in- 
tended to protect, should make an application to be i)rotected 
ao-ainst itself." 



91 

rONr;RESS A XI) THE STATES. 

'Piiiio forbids t'urllior citations from these valuable sources of 
information as to the objects of the Constitution and the in- 
tended use of Federal power to insure the riglits in States of 
property and persons against factions of majorities or minorities, 
or even the State authorities themselves. Republican forms 
were not only to be required, but the substantial securities to 
every citizen which that form in substance produces. I am a 
Democrat of the old school, and consequently regard State 
rights with the reverence due to that great New England })rin- 
ciple of local self-government, limited only by the Constitution 
as the organic law of the Union. I have not regarded some of 
the constitutional amendments as wise, and much of the recon- 
struction policy as not only contrary to the spirit of the Consti- 
tution, but the cause of most of the evils prevailing in the South, 
which I but do justice to the great party in power in saying 1 
know that they now deplore also, and are ready to correct. We 
have not the government of the people in the sense of our ori- 
ginal compact with the Union, nor of the colored man, as many 
good men in the Republican party desired, but we have a faction 
who keep themselves in })ower for purposes of personal gain 
only, entirely regardless of the interest of either race or even the 
party Avhose name they disgrace and use as a cloak to cover 
fraud and corruption. As a good citizen I accept the changes 
in the organic law and those made by Congress in conformity 
thereto, and so far as these centralize the power of the Federal 
(Tovernment, I accept them with regret ; but while conforming 
fully to their changes and accepting the hard conditions which 
they enforce in the South, I also desire to reap the advantages 
for the South which centralization implies, and I invoke, there- 
fore, the representatives of the white race in Congress to give us 
here, in South Carolina, a Government worthy of the race and 
one where a New England man may send his son to settle with- 
out degradation. 

The citizen owes allegiance to the Government ; the Govern- 
ment owes protection to the people. Any form or practice which 
fails in these mutual conditions cannot be considered as a gov- 
ernment of the people, and, therefore, not a Republican form of 
Government. Do you suppose that the white peoj^le of the United 
States intended to fix a perpetual Government of fraud on their 
race as a condition of safety to colored freemen ? 

The duties and rights that grow out of Governments and 
people are reciprocal. If the citizen makes war on the Govern- 
ment, it is treason. If the Government violates the trust, it al)- 
dicates its power. And T can liardly believe that (^ongress will 



92 

aid in fixing an evil on the people of this State, by any refine- 
ment of State rights or abstract construction of the organic law, 
to aid a Government in which it is acknowledged that invention 
seems to be exhausted in contriving abuses. Precedents cannot 
be relied upon to guide us, because history does not furnish a 
])arallel to the power and effrontery of the present rule existing 
without restraint in this devoted State. 

THE WORK BEFORE US. 

Let us, therefore, join hands with every good and true man of 
any ))arty, and of any class. The State is the common heritage 
of all, and let us work together to save it from robbery and dis- 
grace. Let us give full and free counsel and support to such 
members of the Legislature, and the officials of the State and 
('ounty Governments, as like ourselves desire to reinstate an 
honest administration of our affairs. Let us, while holding our 
respective political views and as members of our own political or- 
ganisms, hold them all in abeyance to the great end of all political 
purposes, viz : an honest government and a code of laws equally 
for the protection of the property and persons of every kind and 
shade of opinion or lawful interest. 

To this end let us organize in every C/Ounty on this basis to 
guard the public purse, and to deal with fraud and misrule by 
energetic prosecutions and exposures of fraud and corruption, and 
let us give a ready and efficient support to every reform which 
the Republican party or the Legislature shall originate. 

At the battle of Waterloo it is well known that the fortunes of 
the day were clearly against the English till Blucher came to the 
relief of Wellington, and threw the balance in his favor at the 
latter part of the conflict. A desponding officer, whose command 
liad not been engaged during the whole battle, but was rather 
preparing for a retreat under the demoralizing influences around 
it, was suddenly ordered by Wellington in person, "Come, sir, 
get your troops in motion." The timid officer, counselled by his 
fears, hesitatingly asked, "Which way?" Wellington, with a 
justifiable indignation and a pardonable irreverence, roared out, 
*' Forward^ by GodV And I would say to every Carolinian, to- 
day, who takes counsel from his fears, but with reverence towards 
the just centre of all good government, and His providence to- 
M ards them tliat help themselves, " Forward, ])y God !" 

THE FINANCES. 

I have already furnished the fullest evidence of the corruption, 
ignorance, and oppressive nature of the ride and per^onyiel in this 




03 

other written evi- 
most of them now 
licli they so honestly 
denounce as disgracing their own partyj as well as tlie age 
ill whicli they live. T now propose to show by the same author- 
ity the i)ractical working ot such a form of government, and you 
can tlien judge if these fruits are tlie products contemplated l)y 
the advocates of a Republican government, which the Constitu- 
tion guarantees to every State in the Union. It appears by a 
rei)ort of a joint special investigating committee of the Legisla- 
ture, dated December 20, 1871, page 868, that, becoming alarmed 
at the " great discrepancies existing heticeen the Staie 7''reasurer\^, 
Comptroller- GeneraVs^ and Financial Agenfs printed reports^'' 
they determined to go to New York and overhaul Mr. Kimpton's 
books. .Mr. Kimpton requested time to get out of the city and 
ruralke for the loneiit of his overtaxed energies, during the past 
three years, in behalf of the financial interests of the State, which 
)-emedy and relaxation his physician had prescribed against the 
fatal effects of his impaired constitution and ruined health. The 
^'' coinniittee not wishing the responsibility of the death of any one 
resting on thent.,"' (to use their own words) consented; but when 
the term of recreation had expired, " Mr. Kimpton thereupon stated 
that soon after your Committee had accorded him time, for the 
recreation he had previously asked for, the financial board re- 
quested his presence in Columbia. * * '^ Your Commit- 
tee, not wanting to oppress him, granted him still further time." 

After this, the report sets forth the difficulty of making the 
examination, and their industry in occupying their time in ac- 
quiring information, and state the startling fact that, owing to 
the manner of borrowing money by Kimpton, in small amounts 
and for short time, with the frequency of the renewals and large 
commissions* on each transaction, the '"'^ interest, commissions^ and, 
stamps paidj on sliort loans made in Xew York amounted to 
nearly as much as the entire interest on the State debt,'''' and that 
there must accrue a large commission account in favor of Kimp- 
ton, whose services of course must be paid for. 

In a subsequent report of this financial investigating commit- 
tee to the Legislature, they set forth that it had been given out 
to the public that " out of the abundance of carefubiess for the 
interest of the /State, on the part of the Governor^'' the financial 
agent had been compelled to make an instrument in writing, with 
good and sufficient security, for the faithful discharge of his du- 
ties, and the security of the State, in the penal sum of a large 
amount, and that one of the most ])rominent and skilful banking 
firms in the country had signed his bond, viz: Henry Clews A: 
Co. The bond, liowever, was signed by Kimpton, ami the rich 



94 



lirm signed as a witness. The indignant committee therefore re- 
marks: "But it will be seen, by a copy of the bond he executed, 
that the State lias no security, and that her agent commenced his 
ofiicial life under the countenance and connivance of the financial 
board, with deception covering his steps and irresponsibility his 
acts." (Page 42, second part.) 

The Committee, after giving a great array of iigures, which 
they find in the agent's books, informing us that they are full of 
discrepancies, as compared with his previous reports and the 
books of the Treasurer; among other items, showing that he 
charges for expenses, in excess of vouchers or former reports, the 
krge item of $243,986.58 (page 245, 2d part), remarks: "The 
Committee are compelled to say that the financial agent acknow- 
ledged to them the incorrectness of his accounts, and admitted 
that he was directed, by the financial board, not to make real, 
])ut fictitious, entries. So frightfully large were the expenses of 
the transactions of the agency in negotiations of loans, etc., the 
board thought it best to keep the true amount in disguise;" and 
])art of the &c, appears to be the land commissioners' funds, 
which were passed through his books, although the Treasurer 
])aid in Columbia the bills, so that fictitious sums were entered 
m his books, as the Treasurer advised, from time to time, in the 
fraudulent operations connected w^ith that transaction, amount- 
ing to over 1700,000, said to be paid for lands not Avorth over 
5«^ 100,000 to-day. 

The Committee very judiciously remark further: " Besides this 
admission of the agent, the manner in which his books and ac- 
counts have been kept justifies suspicion of their accuracy." * 
* * What, however, is our astonishment and indignation when 
we are told, on finding specific charc/es, that they are not correct: 
that even detail in payments is no assurance of accuracy! And 
what our humiliation, when we are told that the financial board 
of the State have recommended the covering up and withholding 
of the real business transactions of the agency. 

THE KU-KLUX. 

So much for the character of this Financial Board and its 
Agent's capacity as a bookkeeper and negotiator. Let us con- 
template the celebrated gun contract — page 247 — looking back 
to the history of the Ku-Klux disturbances which disgraced our 
State, originating, as they did, from the stupid and partisan ac- 
tion of the State Government, whose appointments of ignorant 
and corrupt Trial Justices and Constables, and even this source 
of protection of the rights of property so sparsely throughout 
the State that marauding parties were often able to drive away 



:i r;iriiier\s cattle, hogs, and horses before a proper official coiikl 
he found to stoj) the rohber, because a Constable and Trial Jus- 
tice Avere often twenty miles apart; and such Avas tlie corruption 
on one hand, or the prejudice of race on the other, tliat frequently 
a colored prisoner, after arrest and proof of his guilt, by while 
men, would be discharged, on his own testimony to the contra- 
ry, and in a few days the poor fellow, who had lost his property, 
would be arrested for false imprisonment, and subjected to incon- 
venience and expense, this outrage against justice produced, at 
first, organisms for mutual protection on the part of the Avhite 
men in the disturbed districts, and as usual when men undertake 
to vindicate even their acknowledged rights, and civil law cannot 
be relied upon, such organisms are apt to degenerate into violence 
and injustice, producing revolution or brigandage, according to 
relative nimbers, intelligence, or morality participating in it. 

In the case under discussion the Ku-Klux appears to have been 
mainly a body of ignorant men, as devoid of justice as thcyAvere 
of judgment in applying the remedy for which, no doubt, they 
were induced to organize, and had they dealt with the white per- 
sons that organized the frauds and violence of Avhich they justly 
complained and made an example in high quarters in Columbia, 
instead of descending to outrage and abuses of the colored men, 
the ignorant instruments of these public robbers, much more 
sympathy might have been felt for them, and the Government, 
in my judgment, would have sooner exercised its clemency in 
consideration of the provocation. 

THE ARMS FRAUD. 

But, be this as it may, this Ku-Klux organism, apart from 
their outrages on the good order and the fair name of the State, 
Avere also the cause of a heavy fraud on the same. Joint Kesolu- 
tions were passed by the Legislature in 1869, empowering the 
Governor to employ an armed force of one hundred men for tlie 
]n-eservation of the peace, and to '•'•purchase two tJiousand staiuU 
of ar)ns of the most ap2?roved pattern^ jyrocided t J lat a serviceable 
and satisfactory arm cannot he procured from the United States.'''^ 
In the graphic Avords and classic allusions of the Committee, 
which I continue to quote, (page 248:) "The Governor's (Scott) 
First Lieutenant, the Adjutant-General, (Moses,) Avas regarded 
as the proper and best Ambassador for the State in this emer- 
gency. He ca/me to Washington, he sav; the Secretary, he con- 
quered all objections, doubts, contingencies, obstacles." 

The Secretary telegraphed, you can have ten thousand stands 
of Springfield muskets. The mission of the General was a suc- 
cess, and South Carolina procured a serviceable arm from the 



96 

United States, sufficient to equip Jin army of teji thousand men. 
There was, therefore, no need of the exercise of the authority of 
March 16th, 1869; in fact, the authority was nullitied by the 
generous, munificent grant of tlie National Government, and 
our young Caesar, like his great Roman prototype, had his tri- 
umph on his return to Columbia. But this ruthless Committee, 
like another Cassius,^ seems disposed to question his financial 
capacity and his honesty; occupying ten pages of their report 
show the most unblushing and enormous frauds in purchasing- 
arms and altering them, not only without authority of law, but 
by a division of the plunder with various agents, which far out- 
strips the ingenuity of the New York Ring in cheating the pub- 
lic Treasury and dividing the proceeds with their friends. By 
which it appears that the Governor, without warrant of law, em- 
powered his Adjutant-General (Moses) to proceed to The North 
and purchase one thousand Winchester Riiies, with ammunition, 
&c., for which he paid '|38,789 — less the large commissions which . 
all these contracts afforded the agents — and also contracted with 
certain parties there to alter the guns to breech-loaders, which 
the United States had given the State in perfect order, ready for 
use, which alteration, costing the State |165,000, or ^16.56 per 
gun — a price greater (the Committee informs us) than a perfect 
and new arm could be purchased for, of the same kind, in every • 
particular, from the very persons that made the alteration, and 
to be delivered fresh from their salesrooms in Broadway, N en- 
York. But it appears by this same report that $40,000 was re- 
turned as commissions to one of these zealous patriots for arm- 
ing the State, and, we are further informed, by the same Com- 
mittee, that one of the contracting parties only received fifty 
cents ])er gun, instead of the contract price for the alterations, 
^8.35 per gun, which large discount they had to 'make or gel 
jiothing, as they informed the Committee. But it further ap- 
]>ears that the Agent was less grasping in another case, as he 
only exacted a discount of two dollars per gun for his services in 
procuring these valuable contracts. The report does not advise 
us how this fund, thus stolen from the State, was divided, except 
as shown by the latter portion of the following quotation, which 
seems also to concentrate the fraud: "But did these charges con- 
sume the whole amount charged on the books of the Financial 
Agent to the 'Arms Account,' which was $202,60L>.66 ? Not at 
all; the whole amount paid the Roberts Arms Company, Provi- 
dence Tool Company, Remington Arms Company, and the 
American Metalic Ammunition Company, was, in the aggregate, 
not over $126,250, so that there remains yet to be accounted for 
$76,872.66, less $1,088 paid insurance, which has been paid by 
the Financial Agent to C. II. Pond, the only person, unless we 



except the assurances of the Financial Agent and liis confidential 
Clerk, viz: that $20,000 of this amount was paid to N. G. Par- 
ker, then Treasurer of the State. '^'- * * To say that 
the Governor (Scott) or the Adjutant-General (Moses) could liave 
known nothing of these infamous robberies is no longer possible. 
The Governoris alone the authority, on the part of the State, to 
make such a contract, and he gave that authority, with general 
instructions, to the Adjutant-General (Moses.) * * =;: 

No such transaction could have transpired without such sums, 
in thousands, have been paid even by the financial agent, without 
the instructions or directions of the Governor or financial board." 

If this is uot high authority against Governor Moses, Mr. 
Kimpton, and the financial board, where can better be found? 
This report is from a most reliable source as to intelligence, in- 
dustry, and zealous supporters of the government, whose gross 
dishonesty fills them with dismay, and against which they most 
]-eluctantly testify. 

I find ill this connection, in this same report to the Legisla- 
ture, that Mr, Woodbury, a merchant of New York, and the 
treasurer of one of the arms companies above referred to, testi- 
fied that F. J. Moses, Jr., adjutant-general of the State, and noM' 
ihe Governor, made contracts for altering the guns for $44,250 
with the Roberts Arms Company, and when Mr. Woodbury was 
asked how much the company received in payment, replied bul 
S2,500, and another contract for cartridges to the amount of 
$87,000, in another company, and received for the same but 
$21,62':. Yet these companies were requested to give receipts 
for the full amount, viz: $81,400, on pain of not being paid at 
all. These frauds fully account for the poverty of the taxpay- 
ers, and the large accumulations or the profligate expenditures 
of the men who rule the State, and the conviction of such ciini- 
inals ought not to tax very heavily the professional skill of our 
learned judiciary, with proofs largely documentary, and coming 
from official sources so direct and respectable, and whose ])oliti- 
sympathy is entirely with the party in power. 

fitrnishin(t the statehousk. 

Furnishing the Statehouse, in which the most glaring frauds 
were exposexl before a Congressional committee, has been already 
ventilated, but it may not be known that there was charged an 
item of two hundred fine porcelain spittoons at eight dollars 
apiece, for one hundred and twenty-four members, most of whom 
used the floor or spat out of the window, or into the fire. 

The actual bill, at extravagant prices, was $50,000, but tht? 
bill presented to the Legislature was raised to $95,000. A Com- 
13 



98 

luittee was coiistituled to investigate the matter, and their ex- 
penses reached the modest sum of over $60,000; 17,500 of which 
was cJiarged for hiwyor's fees and services, but the lawyer 
credited witli this large fee came forward and denied that he had 
ever received a cent of the money, and had never (he said) even 
been consulted in the case. The Attorney-General was in- 
structed to take steps to indict the member for embezzling the 
public money. The culprit came before the Investigating Com- 
mittee and told them that he did not intend to answer any ques- 
tions that would criminate himself, and when he was threatened 
with indictment, he defied them, and said that they did not dare 
to do it ; that tliey would first have to make an application to 
enlarge the penitentiary, for he would have half of them in 
there. One of the Investigating Committee of Congress, on 
hearing this testimony, asked the witness. What, did he mean 
half of the Legislature ? Answer: The whole concern connected 
with the Government, I suppose. 

We are informed that these bills were paid, and that the ex- 
cess of Wilton and Brussels carpets, mirrors, sofas, and other 
articles of furniture charged to the State House were really used 
for the private lodgings of the members, or in their own houses — 
exactly the same kind of fraud for which Genet was convicted 
in New York, who used building materials in his own houses, 
which the city liad purchased for a Court House. Can we not 
follovv this example, and have this braggart robber convicted, 
and have our penitentiary enlarged for the accommodation of 
such other members of the Legislature and Government whose 
frauds and corruption we so patiently endure ? I have thus ad- 
duced a few examples of the practical frauds of the State Gov- 
ernment as certified to by official reports. I have purposely 
confined myself to these examples as they sufficiently illustrate 
the morals and pi'actice of the Government and the Legislature 
of the State, who being in overwhelming majority, practically 
ignore the honest minority of both parties in the Legislature ; 
disregarding the principles of common honesty and of common 
decency, their affrontery has become proverbial, and we are 
practically asked by their contempt for us, "What Avill you do 
about it ?" Crews and Tweed are representative men in Co- 
lumbia and New York, and the question is, have we a Committee 
of seventy among us, and have we an earnest lawyer like Charles 
O'Connor, and an astute investigator like Samuel Tilden, and 
have we an independent, self-sacrificing and brave body of citi- 
zens in every county in the State who will do as the honest and 
earnest men of New York did — band togetlier, regardless of all 
differences, political or otherwise, and determine to drive these 
thieves out of power and out of the State, or into the peni- 
tentiary ? ' 



00 
rriu.ir .justice. 



Jefferson lias well said that tlie price of liberty is eternal vigi- 
lance, and we must now verify the practical nature of the express- 
ion, 'l have confidence that we have every one of these qualifi- 
cations aniono- our people, and that the exercise of them w^ill save 
the State. lam not insensible to the prevailing opinion that the 
judges are corrupt, and the juries ignorant and prejudiced. Th«' 
open charges of corruption made in the Legislature of the State 
against tlie judges of the highest court, and the frequent inter- 
iei-ence of the Legislature with the independent discharge of the 
functions of the individual judges, are well calculated to ovei-- 
throw confidence in their honesty, and utterly to destroy that 
judicial independence and confidence so necessary for the ends of 
justice. But this phase of our public grievances must be accepted 
'as one of the unfortunate elements which calls for revision ; and 
yet there are individual exceptions, both as to judges and juries, 
which can be relied upon for public justice in the State, and be- 
fore whom convictions for fraud and corruption can be liad, if 
properly and zealously brought before them. Take the most 
corrupt of these men and place him on the bench, in presence of 
a court filled with men of probity and position; put the plunderer 
in the criminal box, let distinguished members of the bar prove 
by competent witnesses the alleged crimes, and the judge will be 
an extraordinary man who will dare to outrage public justice by 
siding with the criminal. We have had a Jeffries in England, 
wdiose decisions disgraced his judicial action, but he criminated 
the innocent to serve the government, and goes down, execrated 
by posterity as a singular case, a monster of iniquity; but we 
have no record of any jmlge openly deiy'mg public justice by 
discharging criminals in the interest of government. These acts 
of corruption on the part of judges are confined to secret prac- 
tice, wdien the public eye is not on them, and juries, too, are not 
insensible of public watchfulness in such cases. 

THE STATE DEBT. 

It is impossible to estimate the State debt, the falsified oflicial 
statements which have so frequently misled the public, each 
one exposing the discrepancy of the other, have completely de- 
fied investigation; we only know that bonds, certificates of in- 
debtedness and other forms of State obligations liave been 
issued not only in most cases without forrn of law, but 
without the least attempt to limit tlie quantity or even to 
keep any exact record of the issues. The Hon. D. T. Corbin, 
United States District Attorney, and (as I have already men- 



100 

tioned) a leading Republican State Senator, in his able speech 
favoring the re-election of General Grant to the Presidency, July 
4, 1872, was constrained, in referring to State politics, with hon- 
est indignation, to denounce the fravids of the officials, even while, 
as he remarked, some of them were his personal friends. He 
there informs us: " That under Governor Orr, (the first Gover- 
nor after the reconstruction,) the bonded debt amounted to 
$5,500,000, and a llv)ating debt of $1,500,000 more, and noAv, in 
the short period of four years we find the State burdened with a 
bonded debt of about $10,000,000, and a floating debt of two oi- 
three millions more." 

After a clear and detailed account of the origin and purpose 
of each Act of the Legislature authorizing the issue of bonds, he 
says: "The amount authorized by the Legislature, as already 
shown you, is $4,389,400; substract this amount from the actual 
increase of the debt ($16,000,000,) and you will find that, with- 
out the authority of law, there has been added to the State debt 
over 15,500,000.*" He further informs us that: " Probably one 
of the most startling facts in connection with this brief financial 
statement, is that our Financial Board have permitted to be sohl 
upon the market 110,500,000 of bonds for about $2,382,000. * 

* * But, in looking through all those various Appro- 
priation Acts, you will find, by comparing them with the expen- 
ditures subsequently made, that the State officers have been gov- 
erned by no law in the expenditure of money. * * ''' 
They have s})ent your money lawlessly, wastefully, and, in my 
judgment, criminally." Mr. Corbin, after showing the frauds 
connected with the Land Commission, in which he demonstrates 
tliat but $500,000 were actually paid for the land even after cov- 
ering the immense frauds in the price to be paid b}^ collusion, as 
shown by the deeds of purchases, he says: " Now, if you will look 
into Treasurer Parker's report of the moneys paid out on behalf 
of the Land Commission, you will find he charges to the State 
about $750,000 in cash," leaving unaccounted for a quarter of a 
million of dollars. He gives us one example of the details of 
these purchases by the acquisition of a tract of land called 
"Hell-Hole Swamp;" a suggestive name for a place of burial of 
the Land Commission as the Cave of ]Marpeloh is suggestive of 
the good patriarch of the old dispensation. He says: "These 
lands, constituting the swamps and forests about it, purchased 
for $120,000. '* * * Now, I learn, from reliable 
sources that the money actually paid for this tract was about 
$30,000," leaving some one or all of the gentlemen of the Advi- 
sory Board and Land Commission to net the handsome sum of 
$90,000. 



101 
rUK SINKING FUND. 



After treating of the Sinking Fund fraud and tliat of the Blue 
Kidge Raih'oad, and other frauds, amounting to millions of dol- 
lars," he turns to the official conduct of the present Governor, 
while filling the double offices of Adjutant-General and Speaker 
of the House of Representatives of the State, accusing him ot 
having reported an expenditure of $5111,000 for services in en- 
rolling tlie militia, Avhile, in most instances, these organizations 
had been effected through private enterprise, and, therefore, with- 
out expense to the State. That no one knows of any of the labor 
done, and no official report even confirms his proper official ap- 
plication of the money; lie further informs us that as Speaker of 
the House of Representatives it became liis duty to issue pay 
certilicates, to defray the salaries of the members and contingent 
expenses, which he gives in detail,' as amounting to but |148,808 
in the ago-regate. He says: " Now, fellow-citizens, the number 
and amount of pay-certificates issued by Mr. Moses, I am credi- 
bly informed, exceeds the sum of one million dollars." Surely 
here are cases for criminal prosecution, and evidence of the most 
tangible and respectable character. Republican judges and ju- 
ries will not dispute Republican witnesses. 

The report of the Senate Investigating Committee in the Sink- 
ing Fund fraud is now before the Legislature. The President of 
that Board, ex-Gov. Scott, refuses to attend the Committee, "de- 
(^laring he would be bothered with no more investigations;" two 
other prominent members decline to appear, on the technical 
ground that the Committee, having been appointed by the Senate 
only, had no power to compel their attendance. The Committee, 
liowever, report that property which cost the State nearly two 
million dollars was disposed of for $123,000, and that even this 
sum has been so manipulated by the New York financial agent, 
by various speculative oi)erations for himself and the members 
of the Board, as to be entirely lost to the State. They close their 
report as follows: " It is apparent from what tlie Committee has 
stated that the |n-oceedings of the Sinking Fund Commission, 
since the time of its apponitment, have resulted in nothing but 
loss to the State; that the (^nimissioners of the Sinking Fund 
have sold a lai-ge amount of property belonging to the State for 
the purpose of extinguishing the public debt, and have not ex- 
tinguished the public debt to the amount of a single dollar." I 
cannot delay you with a full review of this fraud. The manage- 
ment of it by the report shows, that the property was principally 
sold to agents of the prominent members of the Commission 
themselves, i)rivately, the day after the passage of the Act au- 
thorizing them to sell the property, and constituting them the 



102 

trustees of the same; 13,100 shares, which controlled the fran- 
chise of the Company, of the Blue Ridge Railroad, which cost 
the State $1,310,000, was sold for one dollar a share, or |13,100, 
to a Mr. Moore, who testifies to the Committee as follows: "I 
V)Ought for myself and others, to wit: Mr. Kimpton (New York 
financial agent), Gov. Scott, Mr. Waterman (Gov. Scott's brother- 
in-law), John J. Patterson (present United States Senator), Tim- 
othy Hurley, Jos. Crews, Dr. Neagle, the Comptroller-General, 
Mr. Parker, State-Treasurer, and three or four others, \vhose 
names I do not now recall. I think Leslie, State Senator, was 
one of them. * * * - * * * * 

I think Mr. Chamberlain, Attorney-General, was one of the 
parties for whom I have mentioned I have bought the stock. 
That is to say the three leading Commissioners, who sold the 
stock under those questionable circumstances, were themselves 
parties to the purchase." And this operation has also cost the 
State millions in addition in the way of fraudulent issues of scri]> 
for bogus indebtedness assumed by the Legislature. 

KAILROAD FRAUDS. 

The Greenville and Columbia Railroad Stock was disposed of 
in the same manner, and with the stock passed the franchise and 
management in the same manner and degree as in the formei- 
case. The sale was made the day after the bill was passed au- 
thorizing it, with no one permitted to compete. Mr. Moore 
again appears to be the purchasing agent for the officials, who 
informs the Committee that "Mr. Kimpton, the financial agent, 
was indebted to him on previous accounts, and for that reason I 
was induced to go into the purchase. I did not put in any ready 
money at the time of this purchase. I believe the purchase 
money was raised by the sale of the Bonds of the State. The 
sale of the Bonds were made by Mr. Kimpton, so he informs me. 
I understand the Bonds he sold were some of those he held as 
financial agent of the State." This statement is fully corrobo- 
rated by Kimpton's receipt and Mr. Gulick's statement to the 
Committee. 

The effect of this transfer in fraud of the State, resulted in a 
greater fraud against the other Stockholders of the Company, 
who have for some time been engaged in contesting, 1 think, 
over a million of dollars of indebtedness, which these now have 
fraudulently issued for their own private purposes. 



103 
CONCLUSION. 

These statements, vorilied as they are by official reports, are 
yet but meagre re})resentatioiis of the variety and magnitude of 
the frauds Avhich these State otlicials are connected with to arouse 
tlie indignation of even more stolid taxpayers than weliave been. 
I have often thought that tlie stupendous nature of them and 
their cool eftrontery had measurably paralyzed our indignation. 
Many years ago a very erascible farmer, in one of our AVesterji 
States, who was celebrated for his eloquent but irreverent use of 
hmguage when he was excited, was seen driving his wagon into 
town with what had been a load of shelled corn, but which had 
nearly all escaped through a hole which some mischievous person 
liad bored in tlie bottom. The villagers, seeing that the farmer 
had not yet discovered that a long train of the shelled corn had 
marked the line of his wagon track, and expecting a rich treat 
when he should discover his loss, in the explosion of his wrathful 
profanity, followed him to the store door, at which, to his sur- 
prise, he first observed the loss of his corn and the eager crowd 
which surrounded him. Sensible of his situation, and fully com- 
prehending what was expected of him, he mounted on the wagon 
seat and said, with bated breath: "Gentlemen,! can't do justice 
to the occasion." 

Gentlemen of the Convention, with many thanks for your 
courtesy and patience in listening to my rather extended re- 
marks, I close by reading the form of a proposed memorial to the 
Congress of the United States, which I shall ask you to refer to 
the proper Committee, hoping for its favorable consideration by 
the Committee, and its adoption by the Convention: and after 
being signed by the officers and members of this Convention, and 
the other taxpayers in the different Counties of the State, to be 
forwarded to Congress for presentation by a formal Committee 
of this body, Avho shall be charged also with the duty of present- 
ing our grievances to the President of the United States, and 
asking his official sympathy and co-operation against the frauds 
and misrule which deprives us of the rights of American citizens. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




